Associated Press

"Both the record and movie industry have trained us every time there is a format change to go out and replace our current content," said Kurt Scherf, the vice president and principal analyst at Parks Associates, a technology research firm. "Consumers are sick of upgrading."

From the article "Consumers holding off on high-def DVD Competing systems, prices hurting sales."

Wayport officials called it the biggest single deal yet to create wireless Internet "hot spots," and said the companies would announce the transaction Tuesday morning. They said the familiar golden arches will offer a reliable place for road-weary workers to download e-mail or surf the Internet.

Michael Cai, an analyst with Dallas market-research firm Parks Associates, said Wayport's greatest sales pitch is its experience -- the company was founded in 1996, before many of its w ...read more

Online music piracy isn't likely to vanish soon, but the rise of paid online services and the growing popularity of portable digital music players portends greater demand for digital music next year and better fortunes for the embattled recording industry, music executives said Monday.

…That alone may not help the industry make up for lost revenue from the millions of songs illegally downloaded using software like Kazaa, nor add up to the kind of profits made off CDs. About 70% ...read more

And Parks Associates, a market research firm in Dallas, recently found that only 3 percent of Internet users have logged on through Wi-Fi hot spots. Only 5 percent of that small group took out a subscription to a Wi-Fi service.

"If you don't really travel nationwide, what's the need for hot spots?" said Parks Associates analyst Yuanzhe "Michael" Cai. "If you are just the average consumer, why do you want to go to a Starbucks or a hotel lobby when you can just use your DSL at ho ...read more

High-speed Internet providers, however, have focused on establishing basic data lines to homes, not Jetsons-like services, said Michael Greeson, an analyst at Dallas-based Parks Associates.

"The early market for the residential gateway devices is going to tend to be more data-centric - shared peripherals, shared printers, shared Internet access," he said. "It won't be for several more years until the service providers are themselves offering true bundled service packages to the ...read more

Industry analysts doubt the Web Pad will replace the desktop computer, noting the test homes had to be wired for a radio connection between the pad and a desktop machine with a dedicated Phone line that gave it round-the-clock access to the Internet. Also, there is no keyboard, but users can call up an image of a keyboard to type with a special pen.

"People talk about the age of the conventional PC being over, but I don't think that's true," said Kurt Scherf, a home network ...read more