Forbes

Two years ago, casual games were the talk of the town. Before the Wii-fication of videogames, it was these easy to play, relatively inexpensive downloadable PC games that even got grandmas hooked. The boom, brought on by the success of developers like PopCap selling some $80 million worth of games through Web portals, rocked headlines. Everybody wanted in on the growing audience--and dollars--for casual games.

But all of a sudden, the downloadable casual game gold rush appea ...read more

"That's the tantalizing promise of the casual games industry, which hit revenues of $1 billion in 2007, according to research firm Parks Associates."

From the article, "Blowing Up Bloons" by Mary Jane Irwin

"In-game advertising is still in its early stages, generating a modest $54 million in sales in 2006, however, technology research firm Parks Associates estimates it could grow to an $800 million market by 2012."

"Right now, businesses looking to place ads across different game platforms are stuck talking to multiple ad agencies, says Parks Associates analyst Michael Cai. If you want to place an ad in an Xbox 360 game, you have to deal exclusively with Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT ...read more

For now, smart homes are a small enough market that consumers with green motives might be able to give it a meaningful nudge. Parks Associates analyst Bill Ablondi estimates the market for home controls at roughly $3.5 billion in the U.S. in 2007, headed to $6 billion by 2012.

However, Ablondi believes many U.S. consumers find entertainment a bigger selling point, as home automation systems let people shuttle music and movies from the Internet all over the house.
 

Fro ...read more

The question of consumer demand for the iPhone has been examined in some detail by Parks Associates, the Dallas-based market research firm. They believe there will indeed be a substantial audience of "early adopters, the core audience"--but they make up only 3% of those surveyed, especially considering the iPhone's price points of $599, or $499 for the cheaper model.

"Beyond that segment, we do see a cliff," says Michael Cai, director of broadband and gaming at Parks. "It is ...read more

Those trends will continue, but maybe not fast enough. EarthLink's digitally literate customers are four times as likely to switch to high-speed as AOL's. If the 4 million users go broadband before it starts paying off, EarthLink is finished. Forget picking up customers totally new to the Web. Research firm Parks Associates says just 10% of Americans are still waiting to become Web users.

From the article "Against All Odds," by Chana R. Schoenberger.

Underground fiber-optic cables run from each home to a home Internet gateway device which then manages traffic on a home data network, allowing several PCs to connect to the Internet and also allowing those PCs to share files just like on corporate computer networks. Each home also has wireless Internet access.

It's not a terribly new idea. A study by Dallas-based Parks Associates suggested that about 20% of new homes in the U.S. are being sold with some kind of "structured ...read more

Parks Associates of Dallas says that next year one-third of all new homes built in the U.S. will contain some kind of structured wiring built into the infrastructure of the house suitable for networking. Entertainment is the third-most cited reason that homeowners want it, behind computer networking and home security.

From the article "54 Megabits And Nothing On," by Arik Hesseldahl.