Abstract :
Global IT spending is around $1.3tr, according to Tim Bajarin, principal analyst at Creative Strategies. An ever-increasing proportion of this is controlled by consumers: the US consumer electronics industry alone is expected to earn revenues of $170bn in 2008, says the Consu-mer Electronics Association (CEA). Consumers\´ influence on purchasing decisions also reaches parts of the communi-cations and computing sectors. The IT sector is underpinned by a global semiconductor industry that was worth $256bn in 2007, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. Of that total, 17.2 per cent is directly attributed to the consumer market, while a further 20.9 per cent goes on the communications sector and46 per cent on computing. Meanwhile, the global film industry grossed $26.7bn at the box office in 2007, according to the Motion Picture Association of America. The US music industry turns over $10.4bn, according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of America. Movie rentals, Bollywood and pornography all help bulk up the content providers\´ overall revenue numbers. But it\´s clear that even at the most generous estimates, the consumer hardware industry is worth far more to the global economy than the output of the labels and studios. And yet the hardware industry still has to dance to the content providers\´ tune, struggling with protection schemes that slow the development of its markets, limit what consumers can do with the content, and usually provide ephemeral protection. The issue is becoming especially acute for the YouTube generation, which is, if you believe the hype, becoming as much a producer as it is a consumer. Content protection schemes mandated by film producers and music companies still define how we can use media, even in a world where people are increasingly making their own entertainment.Bajarin moderated a panel discussion on content and media during March\´s Globalpress Electronics Summit in San Francisco. He said that by 2010 th- re would be three billion digital consumers in the world, up from just 500 million in 1995. By 2010, 1.8 billion devices that can connect to the Internet would be sold each year\´ιandwe are probably only half way through our journey from analogue to digital".
