AUSTIN, Texas - DisplaySearch, the worldwide leader in FPD market research and consulting, released the inaugural edition of the Quarterly PDA Shipment and Forecast Report. This new 140-page report covers all aspects of the PDA and PDA-display markets. It reveals PDA shipments by brand, region, operating system, Average Selling Price (ASP), as well as display shipments by panel supplier, size, resolution and price. It also reveals shipments between panel suppliers and PDA brands. In addition to providing shipments for the previous quarter, it also includes a rolling eight-quarter forecast of PDA and PDA-display shipments.

The first issue of the report reveals that the PDA market grew by only 14.5 percent from 2001 to 2002, hitting 13.9 million units. From a display perspective, however, growth looked much better, with PDA-display revenues rising by 37.4 percent, despite downward pricing trends. This increase was due to a broad transition from monochrome STN LCDs to color TFT LCDs.

DisplaySearch defines a PDA as any computing device with a display between 3 and 4.5 inches. It uses panel size to determine what constitutes a PDA to avoid the confusion caused by convergence devices that have digital cameras, mobile phone capabilities, GPS, remote controls and other features

Disclaimer: The facts contained in this article are based on an original press release. ICIA/InfoComm reserves the right to modify the release for concerns regarding grammar, style and format.

Circuit City Stores Inc. has not been shy about talking about its success in driving CircuitCity.com shoppers into the stores to pick up their orders. What's less known is that Circuit City is succeeding in moving some in-store shoppers to the web via store kiosks. They, too, are ordering on the web, then walking over to the customer service counter to pick up their orders. The benefit? Before paying for a product, store shoppers can check on the kiosks to see if Circuit City is promoting lower prices online. If so, they order on the web and request in-store pickup. "A fair number of shoppers in our stores use our Internet-enabled PCs to do price comparisons," a spokesman says. "If they find a lower price on CircuitCity.com, they order it and pick it up in the store at the lower price." Circuit City is also guaranteeing that online shoppers who order from home for in-store pickup will get a lower in-store price, if the store where they pick up their order is offering prices lower than available online.

Although blessed with glowing testimonials from a wide range of users, Personal Video Recorder (PVR) products continue to be a rarity in today's living room, according to In-Stat/MDR. However, the high-tech market research firm finds that, while acknowledging this fact, most consumer electronics manufacturers remain committed to PVR products and are currently re-tooling their marketing and product development strategies. Manufacturers are now focusing on the development of PVRs for pay-TV service providers and are further integrating PVR-functionality into existing consumer electronic platforms.

"While the market for PVR products remains modest, annual worldwide unit shipments finally passed the 1 million mark in 2002," according to Mike Paxton, a Senior Analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "This was a significant milestone that underlined increasing consumer awareness about the attractions of 'time shifted' video services."

In-Stat/MDR has also found that:

- Worldwide unit shipments of PVR products will increase from 1.5 million in 2002 to over 11 million in 2005. Increasing demand for PVR-enabled Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) boxes will be the primary driver for growth during this period.

-- North America will account for over 80% of worldwide PVR shipments in 2003. This percentage will drop to 55% in 2007, as demand for PVR products increases in Europe and Asia.

-- One of the most promising new PVR product segments is the combination DVD player-PVR. Introduced in late 2002, In-Stat/MDR projects that unit shipments of these combination products will reach 2.5 million by 2005.

-- The satisfaction rate among current PVR users is extremely high. An In-Stat/MDR survey of existing PVR users showed that 83% of the respondents were either "Extremely satisfied" or "Very satisfied" with their PVR service.

The report, "Personal Video Recorders: Taking the Slow Road to a Bright Future", covers the development and functionality of today's PVR products and offers an in-depth look at key PVR manufacturers and service providers. The report provides worldwide PVR unit shipment and revenue forecasts, unit shipments to specific geographic regions, and unit shipment forecasts by product segment, to include DBS set top boxes, stand-alone PVR products, cable set top boxes, and other PVR products. The report also contains the results of a PVR consumer survey conducted in late 2002.

ST. LOUIS, One of the Midwest's youngest and most successful high-tech entrepreneurs, Timothy M. Roberts, 29, of St. Louis, has launched Broadband Investment Group (www.bigcorp.net), which will provide the necessary high-tech ecosystem support for selected upstart technology companies in the region, it was announced today.

"Today marks the first significant step in creating my vision to provide early-stage tech companies with capital, counseling, contacts and credibility," said Roberts, who will serve as chairman and chief visionary officer of the St. Louis-based company. "We'll also provide the leadership and support services essential to develop broadband business concepts into successful companies."

Roberts has 15 years of experience working with the Internet and its precursor, ARPANET and is the founder of Savvis Communications Corp. (NASDAQ: SVVS), formerly Diamond.net, and Intira Inc., formerly Digital Broadcast Networks (dbn). Savvis Communications is now owned by Bridge Information Systems, the second-largest financial services company in the world.

"The St. Louis area is quickly becoming a hot-bed for small technology and broadband companies, and their potential is phenomenal," Roberts said. "Between the Rockies and the Smokies, many tech and broadband companies are starting to develop, but they need added capital and leadership to continue their growth.

"BIG will go beyond the traditional business incubator model to create a synergistic environment for entrepreneurs to cultivate business ideas," Roberts said. "My background, experience and success is focused on broadband technology infrastructure and applications, so we will invest in and nurture businesses that focus on broadband technology.

"The Internet is delivering a variety of interesting information and commerce applications to the public, but due to capacity limitations, these applications are restricted in their scope, capability and impact," Roberts said. "I want to unleash the creative potential within other Internet entrepreneurs and help guide them to deliver unimagined services."

Utilizing his proven track record for creating successful Internet-based companies, BIG is the third significant high-tech venture Roberts has launched. In 1994, at the age of 24, he founded Savvis, a national Internet service provider that quickly developed the first fully meshed, redundant Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) fiber-optic backbone in the country. Starting with an idea and an initial $600,000 outside investment, Roberts built his ATM network, which he sold two years later to St. Louis-based Bridge Information Systems„a leading news and financial communications firm„for $90 million.

Following on this success, in 1998, Roberts founded Intira, a national service provider with a high-speed network designed to meet the growing data needs of the new Internet economy. He successfully integrated leading-edge data networking and management technologies into a high-value service platform, and defined the "netsourcing" industry.

At dbn, which later became Intira, Roberts held a variety of positions, including chief executive officer and chief technology officer.

Roberts personally raised more than $150 million in debt and equity financing, and built the foundation for the $3 billion e-services company. During his 18 months at Intira, the fair market value of the enterprise increased to more than $800 million.

In 1999, after he established Intira's board of directors and helped secure the company's future, Roberts left to form BIG.

BIG will be based in Chesterfield, Missouri, where Roberts hopes to employ as many as 300 technologists and house 20 entrepreneurs within the next 12 months, he said.

BIG's management team will be announced in the coming weeks.

Copyright © 1996-99 i . B r o a d c a s t , I n c .™ All Rights Reserved

At a distance, the schizoid logic of the streaming media industry which from one second to the next declares that content is king, no, make that technology, no, maybe infrastructure suggests a world as serious as the people who first thought the evaluations of the companies in this space were legit.

But peer closer, past all the hype about first-run VHS quality movies to your desktop and a different story emerges, one of communication, collaboration and global exposure. Because for all of its apparent hype, the streaming media industry is already a billion-dollar market whose applications are crucial to the new way of communicating on a global basis.

Today, information is a more important tool than ever before. The Internet offers over 1.1 billion-web pages; we each receive an average of 31 e-mails a day and both of these figures are expected to double by the end of this year. One newspaper alone contains more data than the ordinary 17th century person would have encountered in a lifetime. Let's face it folks, more than 70 percent of all traffic passed on the Internet is from e-mail, i.e. communication.

Streaming media technology and the applications built around it are widely being adopted every day, right now, allowing corporations to communicate like never before. Isn't that what this is all about? The ability to be able to deliver and receive information faster and more efficiently? People speak of broadband as being the "savior" of this whole industry. Broadband will help, but people have not yet grasped the concept that streaming media is a technology that can be delivered to any device capable of receiving it. And right now that device happens to be the PC. But what happens when that device is also your phone, your pager, your Palm etc. When we speak of streaming applications, we are talking of communication with a global reach. Forrester Research says that come the 2nd half of this year, more than 60 percent of all traffic to your website will come from outside the U.S. So how can broadband be our answer to mass-market adoption? If we are going to talk about broadband adoption rates, let's talk about them worldwide.

Technology Drives Market
And even if everyone could get broadband, does that change things for certainty? People always seem to think that the best technology always gets adopted, which it doesn't. Microsoft converged the TV and Internet accessible from one device, with WebTV, but how many did they sell? The Beta videocassette player is hands down better technology than the VHS player is, but which one got adopted? Technology is not always about what works best; it's about what is cost effective, easy and attractable to the mass market, be it B2B or B2C.

There is no doubt that streaming media technology will allow entertainment content to be accessed in a whole set of new ways never thought possible even as little as three years ago. But right now, until there is enough of a user base and mass audience to access entertainment content, we need to focus on the communication benefits that these applications are providing. Knowledge is power, and this technology allows for that power to be in the hands of anyone who can access it unlike anything we have seen before, except perhaps the Internet itself.

Everyone seems to be in a panic state right now thinking that this industry is going down the drain. It isn't. It's like any industry that was so over hyped and overvalued, we are seeing a correction period. Better it happens now as opposed when this is really adopted and we rely on this application for everyday use. This correction period is reinforcing to companies in this space that you need to have a real business model of how you are using this technology. How many companies can you think of that use to be in the space that we're never really providing any value or service? Always ask yourself, what is the value of what I'm offering? Am I showing and enabling my clients to save money, communicate on a global scale, provide access to real-time sensitive information or train my employees to make them more efficient? That's what this is all about.

The Internet has changed the dynamics of how we access information, and streaming media is set to provide the next global applications that will deliver audio and video, not just text-based info. It's time now to get your business models in place and be prepared for when this is truly a mass-market opportunity.

Until that time comes, stay focused, stay alert and most importantly stay calm. Because those with business models that rely on this technology becoming as widely used as audio conferencing will continue to flourish and grow in this space. There will be many winners when this happens, and I'll bet that it won't be the ones that have the information that win, but rather the ones that will be able to deliver it to the most devices.

About the author Dan Rayburn, an authority on interactive web technology, has seven years' expertise in the streaming media sector. Before starting his own consulting company, Rayburn established the Streaming Media Division for the Globix Corporation. Previously, in 1996 he co-founded one of the first live webcast production companies successfully acquired by Digital Island. His articles on streaming media trends and technologies have been published in major trade magazines and web portals including Streaming Magazine, Electronic Media, Communications Week Magazine, IT Consultant Magazine, Ziff Davis IT Week UK and IDG Books. Contact Rayburn at http://www.danrayburn.com/

Copyright © 2003 Streaming Media Inc. an Information Today Inc. company. All rights reserved

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for digital media measurement and analysis, today reports that broadband access at home continues to post double-digit growth with a 59 percent year-over-year increase, marking more than 33.6 million Internet users who accessed the Web via high-speed in December 2002 (see Table 1). Broadband users also spent more time online, conducted more online visits and viewed more pages than narrowband Web surfers during the month. High-speed surfers spent an average of 17 hours and 20 minutes online last month, while time spent for dial-up users averaged less than 10 hours during the same timeframe. Broadband users also conducted nearly 15 more visits while viewing over 1,300 pages per person, more than double the amount of pages accessed by their narrowband counterparts.

Even as narrowband users comprise the bulk of the U.S. online population, dial-up access declined 10 percent last month. More than 74.4 million accessed the Internet through narrowband, with connection speeds ranging from 14.4-56K.

"2002 marked an entire year of decline for narrowband usage at home," said Greg Bloom, senior Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "As the broadband infrastructure continues to expand across the U.S., we expect to see the mainstream online population convert to higher speeds."

In addition, men comprised 52 percent of all broadband users, while women made up 53 percent of all narrowband surfers.

Table 1. Broadband and Narrowband Year-Over-Year Growth Rates (U.S., Home)

Access Speed December 2002 Percent Growth
Unique Audience 12/01-12/02
Broadband 33.6 million 59%
Narrowband 74.4 million -10%

According to the latest monthly ratings from Nielsen//NetRatings, older age Internet users were the fastest growing segment using broadband. Nearly three million surfers ages 55-64 accessed the Web via cable, DSL, ISDN or other high-speed connections, surging 78 percent year-over-year. More than 3.1 million Internet users ages 50-54 logged online using faster connections last month, up 75 percent, while seniors ages 65-99 recorded a 67 percent increase to nearly 1.3 million.

At the other end of the spectrum, the youngest online users also reported higher growth rates in high-speed access. Broadband usage among teenagers ages 12-17 rose 66 percent in December to nearly 4.2 million, while kids ages 2-11 posted three million users, jumping 62 percent since last year.

"Members of Generation A have traditionally been late adopters of the Internet and technology overall, but it looks like this surfing demographic is finally catching the high-speed wave," added Bloom. "Cost is still an issue for many Web users looking to upgrade to fatter pipes, especially the senior population. Barriers such as fixed incomes and lack of familiarity with online technology and community pose difficult obstacles."

Nielsen//NetRatings Average Internet Usage
Month of December 2002

Data below represent activity for the average Internet user during the designated monthly period.
Home & Work, Home & Work, % Change - December November from November
Number of Sessions/Visits per Month 48 49 -2.0
Number of Domains Visited per Month 76 76 0
Web Page Views per Month 1,336 1,357 -1.6
Web Page Views per Surfing Visit 35 35 0
Time Spent per Month 45:13:36 45:09:09 +0.2
Time Spent During Web Visit 0:32:41 0:32:56 -0.8
Duration of a Web Page viewed 0:00:56 0:00:56 +0.3
Active Digital Media Universe 131.9 million 132.8 million -0.7
Current Digital Media - Universe Estimate 175.9 million 176.7 million -0.5

Note: The Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement panels represent the universe of persons with access to the Internet via personal computer either in the home, or at the workplace from a non-shared personal computer. The "active" portion of the universe previously represented persons who actively generated Web-traffic, or URLs, through a Web browser. With the launch of Digital Media Universe (DMU) measurement in October 2002, the "active" portion of the universe now represents persons who actively used a computer connected to the Internet and either generated Web-traffic, or launched and brought into focus any computer application tracked by the Nielsen//NetRatings meter, or both. The new definition of Active Internet Universe is applied consistently across all audience measurement reports. This is true whether the view includes Web traffic only, Internet applications usage only, AOL proprietary browser channels only, or the combined DMU report which includes Web traffic, AOL Proprietary browser channels and Internet applications usage in combination. The impact of this change on the size of the Active Internet Universe is currently an approximate 10 percent increase versus the previous definition based on Web-only activity.

About Nielsen//NetRatings
Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for digital media measurement and analysis and is the industry's premier source for online advertising intelligence with its NetView, AdRelevance, @Plan and WebRF services. Covering 70 percent of the world's Internet usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated Internet and digital media ratings reports and custom-tailored data to help companies gain valuable insight into their business. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

CONTACT: Maria Bumatay, +1-408-586-7560, or Max Heineman, +1-212-703-5953, both of NetRatings, Inc.