As demand for digital media player devices from hotels and shopping malls in China is rising quickly plus x86-based digital media players are gradually replacing system-on-a-chip-based models, sources from Taiwan-based IPTV suppliers believe that x86-based digital media player's share of the IPTV market will rise from less than 10% currently, to 20% in 2011, while SoC-based models will drop from over 90% to around 80%.

Although the applications that a SoC-based model can use is limited, its advantages in ease of design and lower cost, still win a 90% of market share, but as multimedia technology and cloud computing are advancing quickly, drawbacks of SoC-based models such as the inability to provide further services after sale may impact demand, the sources noted.

In the past, most multimedia player devices such as STBs were SoC solution-based, but as the China market has started to see strong demand for interactive multimedia as well as gaming and communications, while hotels in China have been gradually adopting LCD TVs as standard, hotel players are now more willing to adopt x86-based multimedia players to satisfy demand for their customers.

Currently, vendors including AOpen, Shuttle, Advantech, Acer, Asustek Computer, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Micro-Star International (MSI) have all cut into the x86-based multimedia player market, the sources added.