Blog articles from 03/2009

While I'm sitting at Heathrow waiting to catch our flight to Nice for the CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit on Tuesday, I have some time to share some thoughts on the IPTV World Forum, which we attended this past week. I was struck in my conversations with the resounding theme that many operators have really stuck to a "walk-before-you-can-run" approach when it comes to IPTV services, and that mentality also seemed to apply in the presentations that I heard. I shared a lunch...

“I have never been much of a reader, but I would like to read more,” is a comment heard ever more frequently at happy hours, professional events and even, as for me, at the office. In my case, as in many others, the conversation centered on the advent of e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader Digital Book which, ironically, are using technology to bring this desire to reconnect with the tradition of the written word within the grasp of today’s overscheduled and high...

Amazon.com stays mum about sales of its e-book reader the Kindle. Private sources pegged 2008 unit sales between 300K and 500K. More rosy is the forecast. An equity research analyst projected early this year that Kindle and its content can bring Amazon.com $1.2 billion in 2012. Whether such forecast is accurate is anyone’s guess. But there is no doubt that electronic books and literatures are an under-monetized asset. This week I learned, in quite a surprise, that Shanda Literature,...

Ever since the Obama administration unveiled its healthcare reform initiatives and associated budget plans, electronic medical record has received a substantial amount of attention. This week, a survey result showing that only 9% of the nation’s hospitals have electronic medical records caused quite a stir among pundits, medical professionals and policy makers. Two major sponsors of the study are the federal government and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the survey is based on a...

Going to the Cable Show? Join research firm Parks Associates at a lunch presentation, Engaging the Consumer: Opportunities and Challenges in the Evolution of TV, on Thursday, April 2 at 12:45. Sponsored by Macrovision and Hosted by Parks Associates Moderated by: Jayant Dasari, Research Analyst, Parks Associates Speakers include: Bob Benya, Senior VP, Video Product Strategy, Time Warner Cable Jeff Bonin, Vice President & GM, Alticast Richard Bullwinkle, Chief...

NCAA March Madness is underway, and while I’m not a sports fan, I am interested in digital media strategies of traditional media companies particularly from an ad-focused research perspective. And it looks like CBS is making a play for mobile. In partnership with Apple, CBS has created an iPhone application featuring mobile video streams of NCAA March Madness basketball games. While AT&T and Verizon mobile customers have access to the March Madness games via a $15 per month...

Parks Associates is supporting the IPTV World Forum held from March 25-27 in Olympia, London. Kurt Scherf will be speaking in the session Profit Opportunity Think Tank: The Managed Home Environment – The Last Untapped Revenue Opportunity for Operators? on March 27. The IPTV World Forum was developed as a direct response to the rapid growth in the marketplace, bringing together operators, technology partners and content providers to explore and define the IPTV evolution....

Parks Associates special session at Cable Show presents best strategies for service providers -- Connected set-top boxes are growing in popularity, with 33% of all U.S. broadband households interested in this platform, according to Parks Associates. The international research firm notes this news is good for service providers, which have this device at the core of their current service strategies. Parks Associates is hosting a special lunch session, Engaging the Consumer: Opportunities...