Shipments of MPEG ICs which support compression and decompression of digital video, will take off rapidly as consumption of digital video applications increases on more devices according to a new survey by In-Stat, reports Chris Boeree.

In its latest report, ‘Worldwide MPEG IC Market', the market researcher says that applications for MPEG digital video compression technology expanding, particularly in portable devices, and that by 2013 MPEG ICs shipments will likely reach 2 billion units.

To In-Stat the MPEG IC market share differs among the various types of line-powered consumer electronics, such as set top boxes, TVs, and DVD equipment. It believes that H.264 compression has superseded MPEG-2 in many line-powered applications and that the Scalable Video Codec (SVC) extension to the H.264 will be a major enhancement coming to the MPEG digital video system. With the standardization of 3D Blu-ray, In-Stat predicts that multiview video coding (MVC), another extension of H.264, will gain in importance.

In-Stat identified Qualcomm as the leader in the mobile MPEG codec IC market for mobile handsets, while Zoran leads what it calls ‘Other Mobile Applications', followed closely by Samsung. Other leaders include Broadcom, MediaTek, NXP, Sigma Designs and STMicroelectronics.

"Compression technology continues to improve, offering lower bit rates and higher quality, as well as lower cost and power," says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. "H.264 compression is finding a home in most new MPEG ICs targeting both line-powered and mobile devices."