Western Europe Portable Video Enabled Player

The Western Europe Portable Video Enabled Player Forecast and Analysis provides IDC's assessment of the regional market for portable video-enabled hardware with compressed codec support. The study incorporates current year data and forecasts for player unit shipments.

"The addition of color screens, together with digital video and digital photo support, are being used to drive upgrade purchases of compressed audio players," said Jason Armitage, senior research analyst, European Consumer Devices and Technologies. "Looking ahead, digital video will hold an increasingly central position in the design and marketing of portable players. However, the development of a mass market for portable video-enabled players will take more than adding a color display. Fundamental to this process will be creating related services, developing easy ways of sourcing/sharing content, and providing attractive user interfaces for organizing multiple media files."

The ability to easily download (and in some instances own) relevant video content will help to differentiate individual devices and grow the overall market for portable video.