USB adoption gathering pace

Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports are becoming the connection technology of choice for consumer electronics devices and communications equipment.

According to market research firm In-Stat/MDR, the total market for USB-enabled devices will experience 18.3 per cent annual growth between 2003 and 2008.

Brian O'Rourke, a senior analyst with In-Stat/MDR, indicated that the USB standard has been a huge success and this will continue as it is adopted for a variety of applications.

"The killer application for high-speed USB is the fact that it is backwards compatible with the hundreds of millions of low-speed and full-speed USB devices already on the market," he said in a statement.

In-Stat/MDR reported that high speed USB connectivity was integral to around four out of five PCs shipped in 2003.

O'Rourke predicted that the technology will be the norm for nearly all PCs shipping this year.

In the PC peripheral market, high speed USB was used for an increasing number of devices, particularly external drives, scanners and printers.

In the consumer electronics segment, applications such as digital cameras, digital camcorders and set-top boxes saw increased penetration of USB, particularly high speed USB 2.0.

In the communications sector, In-Stat/MDR noted that cable and DSL modems have rapidly adopted USB, while routers and residential gateways are just beginning to take up the technology standard.