HDMI is an interface for audiovisual equipment such as high-definition television and home theater systems. It’s able to carry a bandwidth of 5Gbps (gigabits per second), which is purportedly more than twice the bandwidth needed to transmit multi-channel audio and video. HDMI provides an uncompressed, all-digital signal.
As adoption of HDMI ports approaches 100% in digital televisions, the interface is now moving into set top boxes, DVD equipment and mobile computers, reports In-Stat. Overall, HDMI-enabled product shipments will increase at an annual rate of 23% between 2007 and 2012, according to the research group.
Not that there's anything wrong with the Mini DisplayPort Connector. It's small, which makes it particularly useful on systems where space is at a premium, such as portable computers or to support multiple connectors on reduced height add-in cards. But HDMI is getting smaller even as it gets bigger (more on that in a moment).
HDMI makes perfect sense for inclusion on systems such as an iMac or Mac mini, computers which are increasing integrated into home entertainment systems and/or used for gaming and movie viewing. Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters are available, but building in HDMI seems more feasible to me -- and wouldn't add to the Mac's svelte figure.
Plus, Apple is a forward-looking company. DVI is gradually declining as HDMI adoption on computers grows, according to In-Stat. Within the computer segment, HDMI made significant strides in 2008, doubling its penetration from 6.1% in 2007 to 12.3% in 2008. The number of mobile computers with HDMI increased 76% over the same period.
“HDMI’s success continues to be led by the consumer electronics (CE) segment,†says Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst. “HDMI has been adopted nearly universally in digital televisions (DTV), which account for the single largest HDMI application. The next big HDMI growth area is in portable consumer electronic devices devices, including digital camcorders, digital still cameras, and portable media players (PMPs). Vendors hope to drive adoption of HDMI into mobile phones, where the more than one billion annual shipments are a tempting target.â€
According to In-Stat, HDMI-enabled product shipments will increase at an annual rate of 20.3% through 2013, while DVI-enabled product shipments will decrease at an annual rate of 8.1% through 2013. And the industry has developed smaller connectors such as mini-HDMI and micro-HDMI to make the standard more attractive to mobile device makers.
In time, it's possible -- no, make that likely -- that we'll have Macs with mini-HDMI rather than Mini DisplayPort. Or perhaps both.
