By the end of the year, manufacturers will launch dual-format players and holdout studios will announce support for both standards.

We are going to try a new format this year. In addition to having the opening ceremonies where we announce the teams and the players, we will have a few scrimmages going on, similar to the Jamboree format, so that people can see their teams in action.

Set-top boxes may not have the coolness factor of MP3 players or digital televisions. But growth is steady, and key developments like MPEG-4 and IPTV make this a particularly important period in the market.

The studios are ultimately going to decide, ... It appears they don't want to bet on a particular format, which may be the trend going forward.

With the market for Portable Media Player (PMP) semiconductors essentially doubling to $6.4 billion in 2009, the stakes in the portable video-processing market are high.

Right now, Microsoft is very interested in gaining market share. In order to do that, they need to take advantage of the fact that their console is out before the PS3 launches.