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To succeed in the digital domain, you need more than know-how; you must know why. Why do some customers adopt camera phones, home networks, and hard-disk video recorders, whereas others do not? SRIC-BI provides insight about why people buy the digital technologies they buy. By identifying opportunities and strategies and providing market intelligence for companies in the digital domain, we help businesses that supply digital content, networks, and devices understand how their customers and competitors will respond to new products and services now in development.
Working as an over-the horizon corporate radar, SRIC-BI identifies early signals of change in the digital business environment for entertainment, communications, and information technologies. Our documented research warns you of industry developments that will disrupt expected outcomes—detours away from the "official" technology roadmaps. Personal interaction with our analysts helps you pick winners and losers in the race to innovate and add value in the digital domain.
Who Can Benefit?
- R&D managers need to set priorities and pick winning technologies.
- Corporate strategists need to align technical and competitive goals.
- New-business–development executives seek opportunities.
SRIC-BI's team of digital experts will tell you:
- which applications are critical to home-network business development
- which third-generation mobile technologies are disrupting the "official" roadmaps
- the varieties of information appliances that people will actually buy and use
- how to separate myths from realities about convergence and the information economy.
| Past projects have focused on a variety of industry sectors including mobile communications (covering cellular networks, devices, and peripherals, as well as PDAs, automotive telematics products and services, and other digital innovations for mobile environments) and digital homes and offices (broadband Internet, digital TV, home networks, voice over Internet, and other digital innovations for fixed sites). (See table below for a more comprehensive list of topics.) |
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What subject areas have we focused on?
Mobile Communications
- Third-generation cellular networks
- Bluetooth and personal-area networks
- Connected cars
- Location-based services
- Mobile commerce
- Mobile games
- Mobile Internet
- Next-generation mobile devices
- PDAs
- Portable batteries and fuel cells
- Software-defined radios
- Wearable devices
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Digital Homes and Offices
- Broadband Internet
- Cable telephony
- Desktop computing and peripherals
- Digital TV
- DVD players and recorders
- Hard-disk video recorders
- Home networks
- Home servers
- Home theater
- Set-top boxes
- Video on demand
- Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
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Mobile/Fixed Site Crossover Topics
- Digital audio broadcasting
- Digital cameras and imaging
- Digital payment systems
- Digital-rights management
- Flat-panel displays
- Grid computing
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- MP3 players
- Multiplayer games
- Multihop wireless technology
- Notebook PCs and peripherals
- Open-source software
- Peer-to-peer networking
- Ultra-wideband technologies
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- Satellite audio broadcasting
- Storage technologies
- Streaming media
- Speech interfaces
- Tablet devices
- Wireless LANs and hot spots
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Our Track Record
| Prediction: DVD Will Succeed
Many analysts predicted success for DVD in 1998, but SRIC-BI called DVD a winner as early as 1995. The December 1995 report New-Media Business Models said, "overall sales of packaged media will be greater with the addition of this new format, even if it eventually cuts into sales of videocassette tapes." Nevertheless, "as long as DVD remains a play-only technology, consumers will continue to buy VCRs...to time-shift television programming." |
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Result
During 2000, videocassette sales slowed in North America, but the total market for movies, including DVD, increased. Yet at the same time, more VCRs shipped during 2000 than in any previous year. SRIC-BI correctly predicted DVD's success—indeed, many retailers have acknowledged that DVD—as well as the persistence of the VCR—"saved the store" during the otherwise disappointing 2001 Christmas season. |
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Prediction: Watch Out for a Reaction against the Internet
In the November 1996 report Networks and Servers report, SRIC-BI told its sponsors that the Internet "has been the object of a great deal of hyperbole and unrealistic expectations.... Consequently, a backlash by the public, by nontechnology businesses, and by the media is virtually inevitable." SRIC-BI was nevertheless "confident that the Internet offers enough compelling benefits...for businesses and consumers to sustain demand." |
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Result
In March–April 2000, investors finally reacted against the Internet hype, causing the stock market to crash and shutting down many marginal dot-com businesses. However, despite the backlash, the Internet is still going strong, with more than 500 million users worldwide. |
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Prediction: Delay for 3G Mobile
SRIC-BI advised sponsors to expect some years of delay for third-generation (3G) mobile services while "generation-2.5" technologies take hold. |
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Prediction: Call Centers Use Speech Recognition
SRIC-BI expects good opportunities in speech recognition for call centers, but be cautious about the now-vanished "voice Web." |
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Prediction: Fast Growth for Broadband Internet
SRIC-BI demonstrated that broadband Internet adoption would be rapid, whereas HDTV adoption would be slow. |
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