Broadcom forecasts busy 2016 for 4K
April 23, 2015
By Chris Forrester
System-on-a-chip manufacturer Broadcom, speaking to analysts following its Q1/2015 results announcement, told them that it was already experiencing strong growth drivers from its Ultra-HD and HEVC chip-sets.
CEO Scott McGregor said that its Ultra-HD and HEVC solutions “are still in the early adoption phase and are expected to drive growth for many years to come.”
McGregor added that the North American market was slower than anticipated because key merger plans between several MSOs was not helping business because of the hesitation this created, but there was plenty of strength in 4K/HEVC business in other markets.
“I do believe that as that settles to be a net positive for us because a lot of the mergers will enable those operators to really feel stronger [about] products out there as they look to moving faster to HEVC and 4K. And so that probably give us an opportunity to have higher [prices] in the boxes going forward. So, I’d say right now in the US maybe it’s a bit of a pause, offset by other regional strength and going forward probably a net positive.”
As to the timetable for major business to start flowing for its 4K chipsets, McGregor added: “The key thing about that is that if you want to win a design today you really have to have leading products with HEVC and 4K, all of the designs and decisions being made on what platforms and architectures are all based on your strength in that space and Broadcom was the first there and early in that technology and so that’s enabled us to win a lot of the next generation [business].”