Marketplace

But now, he says about six and a half percent of households have only internet service—that’s two and a half million more than in 2010. Not everyone is swayed, though. Live TV still has its perks.

“Consumers want local news. They want live sports,” says Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates. He says some TV viewers are downgrading instead of cutting their cable when they sign up for Netflix.

And, of course, Netflix wins either way.

From the artic ...read more

Kurt Scherf, an analyst for Parks Associates, says that might not necessarily be the case because the next generation of televisions may have capacity for growth even after you take it home. "We're actually hearing this year that manufacturers are talking about the ability to upgrade the software on their sets," he says, "and I think that's a big step forward to know that the TV set you buy today is going to have and be able to support the features that we don't even know are co ...read more

Kurt Scherf of consulting group Parks Associates says that consistency across platforms is attractive to developers who want the ability to write an application once and then it gets deployed across PC, tablet and smartphone. Which Microsoft can then use to lure consumers with -- potentially -- cool new applications for tablets and smartphones.

Scherf says it's unlikely Microsoft will overtake Apple's dominance in mobile, but  "a strong number two, I think that's something to b ...read more

Kurt Scherf is a tech analyst with Parks Associates. He says large telecom companies won't offer high speed Internet if they can't get enough subscribers to pay for the infrastructure.

Kurt Scherf: In some cases, you do need a government entity to come in and basically subsidize services to these small underserved and rural areas.

From the article, "Broadband comes to the heartland... slowly" by Jennifer Collins