The world’s largest maker of wireless networking equipment has been increasingly focused on software as a service and now Ericsson is reportedly trying to buy Microsoft’s IPTV unit. The unit makes software to power set-top boxes, and counts AT&T’s U-Verse as a customer.
Microsoft controls an estimated 25% of the market for IPTV middleware. It competes in this market with Huawei and ZTE, companies which are also direct competitors to Ericsson. The IPTV unit is separate from Microsoft’s Xbox unit.
For Ericsson, a move to help carriers offer more video and gaming services could be a key to staying ahead of competitors in an increasingly software-centric market. To date the company has focused on software aimed at helping carriers streamline billing, manage traffic and learn more about their subscribers.
As IP networking companies move more aggressively into telecom infrastructure and software, Ericsson faces competition here as well, and set-top boxes are one of the battlegrounds. Cisco has been marketing its Videoscape Unity product to cable operators and wireless service providers. As video becomes an increasingly important part of wireless, the line between mobile service providers and cable operators is blurring.
Follow me on Twitter.
