3 Billion USB 3.0 Devices by 2018 – Global Industry Analysts

Global Industry Analysts, Inc. announces a report on USB 3.0 markets entitled USB 3.0: A Global Strategic Business Report.

Global sales of USB 3.0 enabled devices are projected to reach 3 billion units by 2018, primarily driven by the need for faster data transmission speeds between peripheral devices and host computers.

USB interface has become an ubiquitous interface technology in a range of electronic devices since the introduction of its first version in 1996. Developed to replace legacy serial and parallel computer ports, USB provides an efficient, fast and hassle free connection interface for peripheral devices like portable media players, disk drives, keyboards, printers, network adapters, and digital cameras/video recorders, among others. The technology has witnessed remarkable growth with the number of USB ports installed on electronic devices growing to unprecedented levels.

The popularity of USB can be attributed to its rapid evolution in sync with changing consumer needs over the years. In line with this trend, the newest revision of the Universal Serial Bus standard dubbed USB 3.0 was released in 2009. The new standard brings in numerous performance enhancements with the most noteworthy being faster transfer rates up to 4.8Gbps, superior power management capabilities, and higher maximum bus power. USB 3.0 also provides backward compatibility with USB 2.0 based devices. The USB 3.0 market is still in its nascent stage and the potential for rapid proliferation in peripheral devices is expected yield significant gains in the coming years.

Ownership of electronic devices is on a steep rise with the number of electronic devices per person in North America alone expected to reach 5.8. This spiraling increase in electronic devices per capita is intensifying the need to exchange data among these devices. For instance, high-definition video recorders typically generate tens of gigabytes of data that have to be transferred to a personal computer for viewing, editing or archiving. Cameras need to connect to printers for printing captured images directly without downloading and storing onto computers. Portable media players, external HDDs and flash drives often store huge volumes of uncompressed images, audio and other digital files. Transferring such uncompressed and raw content from one device to another requires faster transfer rates. Additionally, user applications also demand better connectivity performance between PCs and advanced peripherals.

Capable of addressing these needs and providing easy plug and play connectivity, USB 3.0 is growing in popularity as an interface technology for next generation computing devices. Also, unlike in previous USB standards such as USB 1.1 or USB 2.0, where it was only possible to pipe data in a single direction at a time, USB 3.0 is capable of reading and writing data simultaneously.

Penetration of USB 3.0 interface in USB flash drives, external HDDs, and in notebook computers, bodes well for the market. The PC market represents a key early adopter of the USB 3.0 technology. Most of the new computers shipped, particularly mobile computers/notebooks, are equipped with USB 3.0 ports. Notebooks are projected to be the single largest device segment that will ship with USB 3.0 capability. Growth in sales of laptops and notebooks are therefore expected to benefit the market.

Rapid proliferation of USB 3.0 enabled storage devices is also helping drive growth of the USB 3.0 technology. With the introduction of high-bandwidth storage devices such as 64GB flash drives and terabyte external HDs, USB 2.0 specification is fast becoming a data bottleneck. Transfer of content from these storage devices to computers typically demands faster transmission speeds and high bandwidth capacity, which are provided by the USB 3.0 specification. High-bandwidth devices can provide better performance if upgraded to USB 3.0 and therefore offer excellent prospects for USB 3.0.

As stated by the new market research report on USB 3.0, AsiaPac represents one of the fastest growing markets worldwide with a projected CAGR of 78.9% over the analysis period.

Major USB 3.0 chip manufacturers in the market include ASMedia Technology Inc., Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, Display Link Corporation, Etron Technology Inc., Faraday Technology Corporation, Fresco Logic Inc., Fujitsu Limited, Intel Corporation, LucidPort Technology Inc, PLX Technology Inc, Renesas Electronics Corporation, Synopsys Inc., VIA Technologies Inc., and Texas Instruments.

Major USB 3.0 enabled device manufacturers profiled in the report include Apple Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Kingston Technology Corporation, SanDisk Corporation, Transcend Information Inc., Seagate Technology LLC., and ELECOM Co., Ltd among others.

The report provides a review of market trends, company profiles, mergers, acquisitions and other strategic industry activities. It provides market estimates and projections for USB 3.0 enabled devices in million units for all major geographic markets including the US, Japan, Europe (France, Germany, Italy, UK and rest of Europe), AsiaPac, and rest of world.