Week in research: PaaS popular in South Africa; Asia-Pacific set-top market blooms

PaaS, SaaS or IaaS? According to Frost & Sullivan, uptake by companies of cloud services has not matched the level of hype pumped out by advertisers and media. The reason? Implementation is not always the easy leap that many promoters say it is. In South Africa, for example, many companies looking to use a cloud solution are choosing Platform as a Service (PaaS), where a service provider can manage delivery and administration of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, saving a company the cost of investing in new infrastructure. PaaS is also a ripe segment for collaboration and integration by service providers, the research firm says. "Because PaaS is more than mere application development, success is not restricted to companies that have a history of commercial software development, notes Frost & Sullivan's Head of Information and Communication Technologies for Africa Chantel Lindeman. Release

Frost & Sullivant predicted global cloud market

Cord cutting overblown? All the fretting over lost subscribers may be somewhat unwarranted, according to Leichtman Research Group, which this week revealed that 87 percent of U.S. households subscribe to some form of multichannel video service. Tight financial times has had an impact on the type of service subscribers are purchasing, however. In the survey, 42 percent of respondents said the economy had a negative impact on their household, and 39 percent of the negatively affected group said they had reduced spending on TV, Internet and phone service. Release

Set-tops rise in India, China: Starting in 2013, 50 percent of all set top boxes shipped will head to the Asia-Pacific region, particularly to India and China, ABI Research reveals. Eastern Europe will follow closely. But growth in these regions won't be without its hiccups. "China has a robust ecosystem of set-top box manufacturers, coupled with CAS vendors China Digital TV and Sumavision," said Sam Rosen, practice director of TV and video at ABI. "Meanwhile, India is struggling to enable an ecosystem of local manufacturers, as well as to get adequate supply of boxes to meet an unrealistic digitization timeframe." Release