ISuppli: Pace Unseated Motorola In Set-Top Box Shipments Last Year

The U.K.'s Pace PLC (PIC.LN) surpassed Motorola Inc. as the world's No. 1 seller of set-top boxes by number of units shipped last year, helped by robust growth in North and South America, according to market researcher IHS iSuppli.

Motorola remained the leader by revenue. The company split its set-top box and smartphone operations--now operating as Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI)--from its business and networking units at the beginning of this year.

Pace's 2010 set-top box shipments jumped 21% to 20.7 million units, compared with Motorola's volume rising 4.2% to 19 million units, according to iSuppli, a unit of IHS Inc. (IHS). Pace's set-top box revenue rose 8.1% to $1.9 billion, while Motorola saw a 9.5% decline to $2.4 billion.

Pace's "high-volume deals such as selling boxes to Comcast" have helped it take market share from rivals and has benefited from fostering "new big-volume customers like Net Servicios in Brazil," IHS's Tom Morrod said.

Meanwhile, Motorola and Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and European peers Pace and Technicolor (TCH.FR, TCLRY) all saw their average selling prices decline between 2% to 12% last year. The U.S. brands have sharply higher selling prices than their rivals across the Atlantic.

-By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240; [e-mail]