Hi Grant.
Sigma continues to add big names to its win list. Their earnings last Q were disappointing, though. I need to see their 10Q, when it's out, but it looks like they only did 40K units of DVD. While those were boards, and C-Cube ships just chips, C-Cube was just over 150K units.
Toshiba selected them, even though C-Cube and Toshiba developed the ZiVA-PC chip.
The big thing I'm seeing is that more than 1/2 of the new PC's shipping w/ DVD drives, are software only, or software assisted by a graphics chip decode. The owners of these PCs may later up-grade to a hardware decoder card.
As far as market share, with 1/2 software decoder PCs shipped, I think C-Cube drops below 25% of the total market. Sigma's selling level is about 1/3 of C-Cube's, but they have big name customers, and that could change.
Next year, to sell hardware, Sigma needs a board that records and decodes. I know where they could buy a quality consumer codec. :-) They don't have the R&D money to make their own, and, on a $299 board, it doesn't make sence for them to try. Just buy a sub $50 chip. |
