The US market for multimedia hardware and software is expected to more than quadruple from $4.9 billion in 1993 to over $22 billion by the end of the decade, growing at a 24 percent compound annual rate.

Authoring software and video products will lead growth, increasing their respective shares of total world multimedia revenues from eight and nine percent in 1993 to 13 and 21 percent by the year 2000. Meanwhile, the dominant share going to computing platforms will dip from 69 to 57 percent in the same period.

According to a new Frost & Sullivan report, World Multimedia Hardware and Software Markets, overall US multimedia growth is accelerating from 1993's 26 percent to a projected peak of 44 percent by 1996. As the technology increasingly moves from concept to reality, F&S says it will "catch the dedicated attention of hardware and software manufacturers" who will view it as "the future in desktop computing."

Evidence of this attention is seen in the increasing number of software packages that are incorporating sound and video. Dominant graphical user interface (GUI) operating systems are moving toward including standard drivers and interfaces for multimedia peripherals, as in the case of Microsoft's Multimedia Extensions.

"Add-in cards for graphics, sound, video, and CD-ROM are becoming increasingly available at affordable prices," says the study. "Computers with CD-ROM capabilities and standlone CD-ROM drives continue to drop in price. Sound and graphics cards are seeing lower prices and video is becoming more easily distributed with the introduction of software-based video playback."

Multimedia's ability to bring together sound, animation, motion video and still images together with text on a PC or workstation will eventually make it the "dominant form of computing," concludes the $2,995 report available from F&S. Tel. (415) 961-9000.