Blog articles from 01/2016

It took Amazon 50 Super Bowls before the company decided to plunk down around $5 million for 30 seconds of TV time. In all fairness, though, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was only three when SB1 aired and his company’s name was generally associated with that big river that flows through Brazil, Peru and Columbia. Come Sunday February 7, the Seattle-based retailer will be front and center with Alec Baldwin and former Miami Dolphin great Dan Marino extolling the wonders of the Amazon Echo....

According to a Reuters report published this week, Spain-based media giant Telefonica SA is considering the possible purchase of AT&T's Latin American assets. The assets include cable and satellite TV operations in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, as well as several other counties that were part of AT&T's $49 billion acquisition of DIRECTV. According to Parks Associates research , over 1.6 billion households worldwide will subscribe to a pay-TV service by...

Today Amazon Dash services go live for a number of household brands including GE (washing machines), Brother (printers), and GMate (smart glucose monitors), according to Techcrunch . These devices will now, with your initial permission at set up, automatically order supplies when needed and will theoretically prevent you from ever running out of them again. Ever! The pace of disruption in consumer products is getting a little frightening. Why? I like being able to pop into my local...

The curtain has closed on another CES and in many ways it was the best ever. In addition to CTA’s organization successfully moving some 170,000 people around Las Vegas, the outlook for technology has never been better. For those of us who can recount attending somewhere around 15 or more of these conferences, so many years were about TVs, computers, connecting computers, more mobile computers and now computers residing in everyday devices. Many of us in the industry can recall chuckling...

Fitbit launched its “Apple Watch killer”—the Blaze Smart Watch—on the first day of the CES week. On the same day, the leader in the fitness wearable market was hit by a class-action lawsuit from consumers who accuse Fitbit of false/misleading marketing about its Surge and Charge HR’s claim that they track accurately people’s heart rate. The company’s stock price tanked in two consecutive days—amid overall market volatility and almost wiping out Fitbit’s IPO...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has expanded to influence every aspect of the broadband household and connected consumer. Connected CE and smart devices can leverage the IoT to offer new and innovative functionality, including data analytics and personalization, and create new business opportunities in connected entertainment and smart home solutions. Parks Associates analysts have identified several key disruptors that will influence multiple sectors of the connected home and IoT in...