India, China are shaping the digital convergence

India and China are playing a major role in shaping the digital convergence, a much-hyped concept that is nevertheless proving to be a big opportunity and challenge for the global electronics industry. It is no doubt reshaping the entire electronics industry. The shift will be characterized by lower power consumption, higher processing capacity, greater functionality, interoperability and wireless access to information from myriad sources along with rapid introduction of new products. Though India's penetration in terms of Broadband affordability with breakthrough speeds are not fast enough with which pace Europe and china are headed but the pragmatic approach in the economic behavior of the indian middle class and the policy makers are greatly applaudable.

For technology managers and visonaries, the challenges presented by digital convergence include: more expensive designs as they are moved to 45-nm and lower process technologies; coping with changing technology standards while meeting time-to-market requirements; and managing rapidly rising processing needs.Digital convergence is shaping vertical markets from wireless to aerospace and in the wired market, it is forcing the retooling of packet processing, serial backplanes and interfaces. In the consumer market, it is reshaping digital displays and smart handheld devices.

The prediction and premise is that China and India will and are playing a key role in shaping digital convergence, primarily through the purchasing power of each nation's rising middle class. From an industry standpoint, Chinese hardware OEMs will play a larger role while R&D contributions from India will shape the development of new devices. India is beginning to show its mettle in terms of homegrown semiconductor products and other device solutions. In the upside, Asia as the whole will also help determine the pricing of digitally converged networks and devices, but "these two countries will set the norm for digitally converged applications in their own markets as well as globally.

Mark Stiles,
Senior Editor, The Digital Electronics Blog