For Consumer Product Strategy Professionals

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	July 17, 2008 Competitive Product Ranking: Picking A Winning Set-Top Box by James L. McQuivey, Ph.D. with Michelle de Lussanet, Dan Wilkos	Average: 9  (2 ratings)

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Executive Summary

Between 2007 and 2008, manufacturers announced or deployed significant new set-top box products, each of them building on slightly different assets but all targeting the same goal — establishing an early foothold in at least a million living rooms. Because this technology is very immature and still at the starting line, Forrester ran six competing new set-top boxes through its competitive consumer technology product ranking tool. Our assessment predicts that all the set tops on the market will struggle to overcome significant barriers, even if they serve significant consumer needs; however, we pick the Netflix Player by Roku as the likely unit leader. In the end, the future of the set-top box is not a box at all but a video service that will serve multiple boxes as well as video devices like TV sets and DVD players.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• A Plague Of Set-Top Boxes Is Now Upon Us
• Competitive Set-Top Product Ranking: Which Will Stand A Chance In The Future?

RECOMMENDATIONS

• In The Short Run, Set-Top-Box Makers Will Continue To Jockey For Position

WHAT IT MEANS

• The Future Set-Top-Box Strategy Is Not A Set-Top Box At All: It's A Service
• Related Research Documents

This is an excerpt