Abstract
The universal serial bus (USB) saw continued worldwide success in 2007, with
more than 2.6 billion devices shipping in the PC, PC peripheral, consumer
electronics (CE), communications, and automotive segments. USB' s star is
expected to maintain its rise, with close to four billion devices expected to
ship in 2012.
2008 is expected to be a pivotal marker of USB' s achievements as well, as the
number of high-speed USB-enabled device shipments will surpass those of low-
and full-speed devices. The CE segment has been a strong driver of this
success, with continued adoption of USB in digital cameras, portable digital
media players, and digital televisions.
The major buzz in the USB ecosystem is the impending arrival of the SuperSpeed
USB specification. The USB 3.0 version of the specification, when implemented,
is anticipated to deliver actual speeds of approximately 3Gbps, a rate
significantly higher than that of high-speed USB. This speed is expected to be
harnessed primarily by data- and media-intensive peripherals and consumer
electronics, such as external hard-disk drives, portable digital media
players, and digital cameras, as well as the PCs that these devices connect
to. Products incorporating SuperSpeed USB are expected to arrive on the market
in late 2009, and shipments of SuperSpeed USB-enabled products are expected to
multiply twenty-fold by 2012.
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