DLNA Has The Answers, But Operators Must Spell It Out

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1 Answers, But November 18, 2010 Issue Weston Henderek Current Analysis Principal Analyst, U.S. The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) was conceived in 2003 by companies looking to create more compatibility between their products and different product classes. The alliance has grown dramatically since then, and the DLNA name has become a respected standard in the electronics and computing industries. However, despite a strong increase in the number of products that are DLNA-compatible, mainstream use of the technology for sharing media between devices (as was intended) has yet to take off. As operators begin to promote the Connected Home, DLNA will likely become a more relevant issue in the industry, but how will operators communicate its value? This report will examine the vision of DLNA as well as its relevance in the digital home and make recommendations around operator communication of DLNA benefits to end users. Current Perspective Farah Jifri Current Analysis Analyst, Consumer Services Europe The digital age has ushered in great advancements, not only in the form of consumer electronic devices, but also on the content side. Consumers now have the ability to access and create increasingly diverse content in a large number of ways. However, as the amount of content and number of ways to access and create have ballooned, it has become increasingly difficult to move and consume content and media across a wider set of devices and locations. Today, consumers want the ability to access all of their content using any electronic device, from any location in and beyond their home, and operator strategy is increasingly moving towards the concept of a connected digital lifestyle (notably Deutsche Telekom, Orange France and Telefonica O2). The DLNA was created to form a standard that would help solve this problem and allow the transfer of digital content across a wide range of devices. The DLNA standard developed technical guidelines that defined device classes and networked home use cases which allow for high-quality streaming of digital content over wireless and wired networks for DLNA-compatible devices. The alliance, which was formed in 2003, published its first set of interoperability guidelines in June Soon after, the first set of DLNA-certified consumer electronics began appearing in the marketplace. Today, there are more than 245 DLNA member companies across the networking, telecom, and consumer electronics industries. Some of the more prominent members include Intel, Motorola, Microsoft, Ericsson, Nokia, Sony, HP, Samsung, LG, Toshiba, Panasonic, Cisco, AT&T, Verizon and Qualcomm. In the early days of DLNA, there were very few devices that were compatible with the standard and other complementary streaming media standards such as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). Initial products included PCs and network access points such as routers. However, as the standard grew and software certification was introduced earlier in 2010, the number of device categories adding DLNA compatibility Europe +33 (0) Or visit our Web site: 1

2 has ballooned. Today, there are over 8,000 certified devices, and device categories offering DLNA compatibility include HDTVs, set-top boxes, game consoles, DVD and Blu-ray players, printers, photo frames, radios, PCs, mobile devices, network-attached storage (NAS), routers, digital cameras, camcorders, audio/video equipment and even some appliances. In the mobile device area, the last two years has seen solid growth in the number of DLNA-compatible devices, including the HTC Desire and Hero; Motorola Droid, Droid 2 and Droid X; Samsung Omnia, Omnia 2, Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab; Sony Ericsson Xperia X2, Vivaz, Satio and W995; and Nokia N86, N97 and N8. Mobile operators, such as Vodafone Group and France Telecom/Orange, have also started marketing DLNA-compatible set-top boxes as well as USB and WiFi modems in the consumer space. The standard ultimately enables streaming between devices through the use of a baseline device as a digital media server (which could be a PC or a game console such as an Xbox360) that can recognize other DLNA-compliant devices acting as digital media players on the network. Once recognized, any content from the shared devices on the network can be viewed, seen or heard on any other selected digital media player. For example, a customer with a DLNA-compliant PC, TV and digital camcorder can use a PC as the baseline digital media server that recognizes DLNA devices and then directly view media from the camcorder on the TV screen without having to plug in any wires or fiddle with any settings. DLNA Services One of the key messages for operators to communicate to end users is that DLNA is ultimately a standard, and not a service in and of itself. Underlying DLNA compatibility between devices with a media server and media players will enable content sharing through streaming, but it is up to operators to market the connected lifestyle benefits and create suitably attractive commercial propositions to nurture this behaviour. Today, there are almost no direct end-to-end DLNA services active in the market. Existing offerings that take advantage of DLNA are mostly limited to companies offering applications to enable and enhance media sharing between devices using DLNA and/or other standards. Some offers providing DLNA-compatible media centre software to enhance customer options and usability when it comes to sharing media include Windows Media Player 11, PlayOn, TVersity and TwonkyMedia. As part of their efforts to sell the connected home vision to end users, operators will have to address this issue and ensure sharing content across multiple devices happens seamlessly. From a consumer perspective, there is no need to know how the underlying technology works, or even the standards required to make sure it happens just that the applications work as promised, from the off. DLNA Availability and Adoption Issues While the number of DLNA-enabled devices has expanded greatly over the last several years, there are some availability and adoption issues that have dramatically limited its use in the marketplace. First of all, customer awareness of the technology remains very limited. Other than technophiles and early adopters, the overall awareness of DLNA among the general public remains minimal due to the lack of marketing and true end-to-end services. In addition, while consumers may own DLNA-compatible devices (smartphones and games consoles), they may not own DLNA anchor points such as receivers and/or set-top boxes that interface with A/V resources (typically a TV). The lack of DLNA anchor points among consumers serves to limit its overall value proposition. Finally, despite the fact that there are now over 8,000 DLNA-certified devices, many of those devices are new to the market in the past 18 months and are generally higher end in nature. Without DLNA compliance across a wider range of entry and mid-level consumer electronics, the mass market will be very limited in terms of what devices can be connected using the standard. Also, without true Europe +33 (0) Or visit our Web site: 2

3 end-to-end services and marketing surrounding those services, it will be very difficult for DLNA to gain increased acceptance. Among the major obstacles to DLNA adoption is the lack of plug-and-play systems that consumers can quickly and easily set up and know that they just work, which are largely absent from the market. From an operator point of view, just flagging up the DLNA credentials of a product is going to do little to encourage consumer take-up. Is DLNA Relevant? When looking at the overall problem which DLNA is attempting to solve, it is clear that end-toend connectivity of content between different types of devices is the overall selling point. Without easy-to-use end-to-end offerings, DLNA will struggle to gain acceptance, especially with an increasing number of companies such as Apple (with its itunes ecosystem) and Microsoft (with it Zune Marketplace, Windows Phone 7 and Xbox) contributing to a more closed loop by designing their hardware to work together without open standards such as DLNA. However, it is also clear that from a consumer perspective, the launch of new products for the digital home such as Google and Apple TV is exposing the mass market to more possibilities for viewing their media and content from numerous sources. In addition, the broad acceptance of smartphones with high-end operating systems such as ios and Android has given consumers another main point to access and store media on a large scale. These developments have helped expose customers to a much broader range of content and have given a wide range of companies access to these customers through mobile applications. As a result, a larger number of companies are looking at more efficient ways to access new customers and to support existing ones. Using DLNA to connect a wide range of devices to an end-to-end service may be a good way for companies to differentiate themselves and create additional value. However, until companies implementing DLNA start addressing some of its usability issues, it will likely remain fairly niche. DLNA Alternatives There are several other standards in addition to DLNA which are attempting to solve the same issue of sharing content between devices. These include Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), High- Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and Airplay, among others. UPnP is another forum standard that functions in much the same way as DLNA; however, UPnP cannot be viewed as a competing standard. UPnP was designed primarily for connecting PCs and peripherals, not for media sharing, and UPnP compatibility is actually built into the DLNA standard. Thus, most DLNA-compliant devices should work with UPnP; however, not all UPnP devices will work with DLNA. HDMI is the first industry-supported, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface. HDMI provides an interface between any audio/video source and an audio and/or video monitor such as a TV over a single cable. Over 700 companies have adopted the HDMI standard and have or will be implementing it in their products. In practice, HDMI is rapidly becoming a way that device vendors use to connect camcorders, smartphones, tablets and media players to the television, with smaller devices using harder-to-find mini-hdmi or micro-hdmi connectors to conserve space. However, HDMI often is not considered a direct competitor to DLNA, since it promotes a direct connection between devices with a standardized cable. As a result, many companies which have embraced HDMI are also using DLNA. AirPlay is an Apple standard that lets users stream content from itunes to a range of household devices, including compliant speakers, AV receivers, stereo systems and Apple s own set-top box, the new $99 Apple TV. As of late 2010, there is a relatively limited range of companies outside of Apple producing AirPlay-compatible devices, including Denon, JBL and ihome. Although AirPlay is an attempt at simplifying the DLNA concept, it will be limited by the fact that it will only Europe +33 (0) Or visit our Web site: 3

4 provide a truly integrated experience to users of Apple devices. If history is any guide, Apple will ensure a seamless user experience and spin this as a benefit of staying within Apple s closed world. Ready for Primetime or Past Its Prime? Despite the fact that DLNA has made tremendous inroads on the device front in the consumer electronics space, it still cannot be said that the technology is ready for mass-market adoption. There are just too many obstacles in terms of consumer awareness, user interface and user experience to be ignored. Operators and consumer electronics manufacturers, as well as the DLNA itself, will have to come up with a more accessible, understandable and user-friendly way of ensuring DLNA interoperability between the various devices within the connected home. However, as the glue that will keep content moving between all of the end user s screens and storage devices, it is still too soon to write off DLNA. The issue of easily moving digital media between an ever-growing number of device types is not going away anytime soon, and DLNA represents a novel, industrybacked approach to a real world problem. With additional progress on the marketing and usability fronts, DLNA could still have long-term potential. Recommended Actions Recommended Vendor Actions The DLNA should create a better template for member companies to create an easy-to-use, standardised menu system for their compliant devices. Without an easily accessible menu system that exposes content sharing capability without the consumer having to dig deep through various menus and settings, DLNA devices will remain very difficult to use. In addition, the alliance should work on a mechanism for connecting all the DLNA-compatible devices within the home that is accessible to the less tech-savvy consumer. Companies with a wide range of DLNA-compliant devices should not only focus on making DLNA setup between devices easier, but they should also consider launching end-to-end services that take advantage of the standard to give consumers new ways to access content and create more stickiness for their product lines. One of the reasons Apple has been successful in promoting its own closed end device ecosystem is because of the seamlessness and common experience within its device portfolio. Mobile device makers should consider focusing on DLNA as a differentiator from a marketing perspective as more consumers create digital content on their smartphones. However, simply slapping a DLNA sticker on the product is not sufficient; vendors need to evangelize the use case, not the technology. Vendors should promote the ability to display photos and video on TVs and PCs without the need for wires and list specific DLNA-compatible devices. European operators should work with device manufacturers to ensure that consumers can purchase out-of-the-box solutions that will work together to create the connected home experience. It is not enough just to label a device DLNA-compatible and expect consumers to understand how to set it up on their own. Operators and service providers that provision IT and technical support services should consider offering a setup service that will get a customer s various DLNA-certified devices working together. Recommended User Actions While it limits flexibility, consumers seeking the simplest approach for purchasing digital content and viewing it on multiple devices should look to closed systems from vendors such as Apple (iphone/ipod/ipad/apple TV) and Microsoft (Windows Phone 7/Zune HD/Xbox). The DLNAbased systems on the market are too complicated. Consumers should be aware that in order for DLNA to work properly for media shifting, all of Europe +33 (0) Or visit our Web site: 4

5 their digital devices need to be DLNA-compliant. As a result, enabling media shifting between a wide variety of devices will likely entail replacing many of their existing devices such as TVs, A/V receivers, etc. Consumers who already have several DLNA-compliant devices and are looking to use them for media shifting should consider the purchase of software from companies such as TVersity and TwonkyMedia (or Windows Media Player 11) which simplifies DLNA access menus via a home PC. Europe +33 (0) Or visit our Web site: 5