According to research of the Taipei-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) conducted as part of the ITIS project, worldwide e-reader shipment volume is expected to reach 3.05 million units in 2009 and is forecast to reach 19.76 million units in 2013. The shipment volume CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) for the period 2008-2013 is expected to amount to 78.2%. Worldwide shipment value of e-readers is expected to reach US$749 million in 2009 and is forecast to reach US$4.16 billion by 2013. The shipment value CAGR is expected to amount to 71.9% for the period 2008-2013.

With key e-reader vendors such as Amazon and Sony aggressively developing the market and the growing environmental awareness among consumers in recent years, demand for non-paper electronic reading devices has surfaced. According to MIC Senior Industry Analyst David Chen, "the usage scope of e-readers has already expanded from leisure reading to work document reading and study-related reading. Among e-reader users, there is demand for touch writing input, memory card slots, relatively large-sized displays, and personal virtual library functions."

MIC forecasts that the focus of e-reader display technology competition will evolve from paper-like visual reading experience to book-like reading experience, including visual, touch and even hearing aspects. Key elements in this competition will be image processing, color display, touch control to turn pages, and writing input.

In the coming years, value in the e-reader industry supply chain is expected to move from software-, content- and service-related areas to hardware-related e-reader production and assembly processes. This will involve e-reader contract production, monochrome e-reader display, color e-reader display, driver IC, controller IC, USB controller IC, and wireless communication IC companies.

Is this relevant for CAT-iq, light bulbs? Yes, but read this first.

Supplier of networking products and computer accessories Eminent Europe BV shows to be highly involved with energy saving products by introducing environmentally friendly LED lighting. Next to low power consumption and long life span, the LED lamps have dimming capabilities. This specific combination of features will make the Eminent lamps the first true replacement for traditional bulbs and halogen lamps. The Eminent professional LED lamps are ready for mass production and will be available in stores in October 2009.

New product category for a growing market
Eminent presents a new product category: dimmable LED lighting. Developing energy-efficient LED lighting is in line with Eminent's objective to create environmentally friendly consumer solutions. Earlier Eminent announced e-Domotica, an innovative home automation system focussing on energy saving. The new LED lamps again underline Eminent's commitment to environmental sustainability. Especially in the field of lighting, there is a growing need for replacing traditional bulbs and halogen lamps with energy-efficient lamps. Thanks to research and development of new-generation dimmable LED lamps, Eminent is able to enter this growing market.

To come back to our initial question, what has lighting to do with CAT-iq.
There is a (potential) relation, as the LED lamps use electronics. These electronics can be used to control the LED lamp remotely. And here comes CAT-iq as a possible solution.
Eminent sees the LED lamps as part of their e-Domotica solution. Others like Sharp and Philips supply LED lamps with remote control.

So ladies / gentlemen of the CAT-iq industry, look at this huge potential market. 

 

Here you can see the Sharp LED lamp with remote control.

 

With the EasyTouch Panel10™, Marmitek has convincingly demonstrated that operational ease and a stylish design go hand in hand. The 10”/25cm touch screen, which can easily be attached to or fitted into the wall, is used to wirelessly operate all X-10 controlled lights and equipment within the house. Because of the fact that users can add their own favourite backgrounds, buttons and functions, they can amaze their friends, family and neighbours with a touch panel that is as chic as it is high-tech. And all for less than € 200.

Marmitek EasyTouch Panel10™
Marmitek's new EasyTouch Panel10™ is an affordable, wireless touch screen which can be programmed and used by everyone, without the need for a computer. Even grandma and grandpa can switch off all the lights in the house with one single touch on the panel.

 

Customised design
This touch screen is unique insofar as the content of the screen can easily be set up according to your own wishes and taste. Two different configurations each offer the option of adding a maximum of 30 buttons. The touch buttons are each given their own function and can be placed wherever you like on the screen. In combination with the possibility of placing a personal background photo under the glass touch panel, users can design a unique control panel. So it is possible to make a collage of photos of all of the X-10 devices in the house and then place the buttons above the relevant device on the screen. Users can even use photos of family members so that one touch on the photo immediately leads them to the favourite settings of the person concerned. Of course, you can always use your favourite holiday snap or any image that fits in with the style of your interior. You own creativity forms the only limitation in this regard.

To allow you to get straight to work and offer some inspiration, three 'style samples' are supplied with the screen, providing you with three different background styles. The operation of Home Automation has never been this attractive. Start today with Marmitek X-10 Home Automation or fit this panel into your existing X-10 domotics system.

Specifications
The screen is equipped with a built-in Marmitek X-10/RF transmitter and an integrated antenna. This wirelessly transmits the Marmitek X-10 commands to your X-10 transceiver. The screen, made of brushed aluminium, can easily be attached to the wall or fitted into the wall using an optional mounting frame. The screen uses 2 AAA batteries and all settings are automatically stored during any power failures.

The Home Gateway Initiative, a global organization founded primarily by European telecom operators, this week unveiled new plans to make home gateways more modular, more energy-efficient and more capable of diagnosing problems in the home network.

The HGI, which includes major vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei and Microsoft among its members, doesn’t yet have a US operator in the fold, but its ongoing efforts to define home gateways could well impact what is available here. Founded by nine service providers, including eight European companies and NTT, the HGI sets requirements for home gateways, infrastructure devices and the home network.

Two of its current initiatives are expected to be finalized by the end of 2009 or shortly thereafter and include allowing modular changes to be made to a home gateway to enable new functions to be easily added, said Duncan Bees, the HGI’s chief technology officer, in an interview following his participation in a panel at the Broadband World Forum in Paris.

“The software modularity work we are doing will enable service providers to install applications and modules on the gateways dynamically – actually, to install, uninstall and manage them,” Bees said. “That is a bit of a change. The current gateway is generally a monolithic code, and it is not easy to install new things in a modular way. We have a requirements document from HGI which is setting out technical requests for a software execution environment which will be published, depending on the comments we receive, probably within the quarter, at the earliest.”

Bees said HGI is going to be “relying on some work by other specific technology providers to work with HGI,” but said details about that work have not yet been announced.  

Read the complete article in Telephonyonline.

The Wireless Power Consortium – a body dedicated to the development and promotion of an international wireless power standard – this week released the 0.95 technical specification for review by its members, suggesting that a version 1.0 release is not too far away.

The consortium said it will undertake prototype testing of wireless charging at a members’ interoperability test to be held in September.

Under the Consortium’s plans, all electronic devices bearing the ‘Qi’ symbol could be charged on any charging pad or surface marked with the same ‘Qi’ logo. The global wireless power charging standard is targeted at low power devices that are five watts and below, such as mobile phones and personal music players.

 

 

Members of the Consortium include ConvenientPower, Duracell, Hosiden, Fulton Innovation, Leggett & Platt, National Semiconductor, Olympus, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo, Shenzhen Sangfei Consumer Communications, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments.

A solution to wireless power transfer has been sought since Nikola Tesla first revolutionised our understanding of electricity. Earlier this year, boffins at the Nokia Research Centre used the electromagnetic radiation emitted from wifi transmitters, mobile phone antennas, TV masts and the like (ambient radio waves) to harvest 3-5 milliwatts using current prototypes test circuits in the lab.

The target is to hit 50 milliwatts, which would be enough to eventually re-juice a phone with a flat battery.

Previously, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have focused on magnetically coupled resonance as a way of providing wireless electricity.

Read in telecoms.com 

The DECT Forum, the worldwide association of the home and enterprise communication industry, is pleased to host the first CAT-iq Developer Conference in Sophia Antipolis (France) from October 22-23, 2009. The online registration for this DECT Forum event in collaboration with ETSI/Forapolis and Jakajima is open now. Please visit the dedicated website at www.catiqdeveloperconference.org and read more about benefits for delegates, speakers, sponsorship and exhibition, and high-level networking opportunities.

The CAT-iq Developer Conference 2009 is mainly focused on technical aspects of the CAT-iq technology and standard, and is targeted to hardware/software developers and engineers but also to interested marketing and business development representatives of the industry. The conference agenda covers two main areas related to the latest CAT-iq development: the standardization and certification of CAT-iq products, new markets and applications for future CAT-iq devices. Delegates of the conference will learn more about the latest design and deployment of CAT-iq profiles 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, about platforms, reference systems, and test tools, about software environment and support and will get an outlook into CAT-iq future scenarios.

For more information about the conference program, registration and pricing, sponsoring and promotion opportunities, and the networking event at the first day of the conference, please visit the event site or contact the DECT Forum Secretariat directly.

About CAT-iq Certification Program
The CAT-iq certification program promotes CAT-iq to market stakeholders as a technically credible implementation of conformity to a set of standards that will add value to their industry/lives. It ensures interoperability of devices from multiple manufacturers for functionalities defined in CAT-iq. Furthermore the certification program ensures a mandatory level of quality requirement for specific product parameters to achieve consistent user experience of the different stakeholders. All manufacturers, test houses, certification laboratories, and further interested companies, who intent to test and certify CAT-iq devices, will be able to purchase the certification test equipment.

CAT-iq is a registered trademark (in 47 countries worldwide) owned by the DECT Forum, it references features and procedures to corresponding ETSI specifications. Only end products can be approved through the certification program (fixed part and/or portable part). Application for CAT-iq certification is restricted to Full members of the DECT Forum. Please find an overview of the CAT-iq certification program at the site.

About DECT Forum
The DECT Forum is the international industry association of the home and enterprise communication industry. With more than 800 million devices sold and growing by more than 80 million devices per year, DECT, DECT 6.0 and CAT-iq are worldwide-adopted technologies with high relevance for wireless voice and broadband home and enterprise communication. The DECT Forum is located in Berne, Switzerland. Full members of the DECT Forum are currently: Ascom, AVM, CCT, Deutsche Telekom, DSP Group, Gigaset Communications, GN Netcom, Infineon, Panasonic, Philips, Plantronics, Polycom, RTX, Sagem, SiTel, SGW Electronics, Snom, Swissvoice, Thomson, Uniden, Vtech.
Also visit

www.dect.org

www.cat-iq.org

blog.cat-iq.org