IPTV set-top box sales up 86% in Q1, says Synergy Research Group

May 16, 2008 - Sales of IPTV set-top boxes rose 86% worldwide in the first quarter of this year, according to a new report from Synergy Research Group, with the IPTV equipment market as a whole growing 45% globally relative to the same period of last year.

The report finds that IPTV equipment sales are being driven by upgrades to carrier networks, especially at the edge of the network. Synergy projects that global IPTV subscribers will increase "substantially" over the next two years to reach nearly 40mn by 2010, with deployments in China and South Korea especially developing at an accelerated pace.

"IPTV has transitioned from a forward-thinking play to an essential strategy for service providers to counter competitive forces and pursue lucrative revenue opportunities," says Ray Mota, Chief Research Officer at Synergy Research Group. "This continues to translate into dollars spent on infrastructure equipment providing intelligence and service delivery at the edge of the service provider's network."

Q1 2008 Total IPTV equipment revenue rankings
(Source: Synergy Research Group)

In the first three months of this year, Juniper ranked #1 in IPTV broadband remote access servers (BRAS), followed by Cisco and Ericsson; while, Motorola ranked #1 for IPTV set-top boxes, followed by Cisco.