E-commerce Times

Meanwhile, numerous competitors have come to populate the music-streaming space. Pandora, for instance, claims 77 million users, compared with Grooveshark's relatively modest 30 million.

Grooveshark's planned pricing of 99 cents a month is "much cheaper than Pandora One, which is $4.99 a month," noted Glenn Hower, a research analyst with Parks Associates.

"However, Pandora is pretty entrenched in the market," he told the E-Commerce Times. "That's a tough road for Grooves ...read more

A notable trend is medication reminder functions increasingly found in mobile apps as a value-added feature that is free of charge. Medication reminders used to be marketed as a subscription service, but health-focused smartphone apps are integrating the reminder function with other health and wellness features, such as Personal Health Record, symptom checker and daily activity tracker.

The U.S. is facing a retirement wave. Seventy-six million Baby Boomers are beginning to h ...read more

Smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices have made it possible for consumers to access the Internet from almost anywhere in the world -- but apps are the tools that specifically drive usage, by offering an easy-to-use interface. As a result, consumers are getting accustomed to accessing the Internet using apps instead of a browser.

Businesses have addressed this change in behavior by serving customers through their mobile devices, which has spurred widespread use of a ...read more

Indeed, "ultimately Netflix has to have some type of peering agreement in order for its traffic to get through to consumers," said Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates. "It's not really all that unusual."

What is unusual is that Netflix's volume of traffic is "so disproportionately high," Sappington told the E-Commerce Times.

"Someone ultimately had to pay that bill," he added.

Still, peering agreements "have been around forever," Sappington po ...read more

The video content industry long has relied on pay-TV services as a significant revenue source, but digital technologies -- namely over-the-top, or OTT, services -- are impacting pay-TV rights and revenues.

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. broadband households now own one or more devices capable of delivering online content to TV sets, and younger viewers have altered their video consumption habits in response to these new technologies.

Live/linear broadcast TV accounted for jus ...read more

Since the start of 2014, the buzz around consumer video technology has centered on 4K Ultra High Definition, or UHD, video. At both the Consumer Electronics Show and the National Association of Broadcasters Show, the exhibit halls were filled with massive screens showing incredibly clear, vibrant video images. As a result, companies throughout the video ecosystem, from TV makers to content producers, are trying to assess the impact of 4K and the pace with which it will roll out ...read more

Consumer hunger for digital content appears insatiable, based on the strong growth in online video subscription services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Thirty-seven percent of U.S. broadband households surveyed had a Netflix subscription for OTT content, while around 10 percent had subscriptions to Hulu Plus and Amazon. The number of U.S. subscribers to Netflix's streaming service increased 59 percent, from 19.5 million in 2010 to more than 30 million ...read more

Amazon's approach of making the pilot episodes free and encouraging consumer feedback and interaction "should play well with audiences," Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates, told the E-Commerce Times.

"The free access will encourage thousands to watch, providing exposure for the content and for Amazon's service," he said.

The kid-oriented content is particularly interesting, Sappington remarked.

"Children's content, if it catches on, has a ver ...read more