Blog articles from 03/2010

Parks Associates announced the preliminary agenda for CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase , which will address the future of digital entertainment and connected CE with keynotes from Sony and Samsung. In addition to the focus on digital content and new service offerings for consumers, the three-day event will feature research presentations and speaker panels on support services, DRM, energy management and controls, advertising, and mobile applications and services....

The Dallas Morning News did a nice write-up last week on 3DTVs that coincided with the launch of both Panasonic and Samsung's products at retail. The article provided what I thought was a good perspective on whether the average consumer should run out and buy a 3DTV set: "Unless you're rich and impatient, you might want to hold off for a year or two. The first batch of 3-D TVs is more expensive than standard HD sets, and analysts expect the prices for 3-D sets to drop...

The speakers for C ONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit: Monetizing Connectivity and User Experiences, announced today by Parks Associates, offer unique executive insight into business strategies for digital content, value-added services, connected CE, and advanced video devices and services. International research firm Parks Associates will host the Summit on April 27, 2010, at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam. Benoit Joly, Vice-President, Home Network & Applications, Technicolor,...

According to a recent CNNMoney.com article , the next technical goldmine is medical records. There are an estimated 300 to 400 companies in the United States peddling electronic medical records (EMR) systems to the nation's hospitals, medical clinics and solo practitioners. While some, such as GE Healthcare and NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, are part of corporate behemoths, the vast majority are small, privately held firms like eClinicalWorks. While large firms such as...

Register today for the Parks Associates March 18th webcast, Enhancing Remote Customer and Technical Support, sponsored by PlumChoice and support.com . Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates, will discuss the evolution of the support market - including consumer electronics, home computer and networking configuration, and a variety of maintenance, diagnostics, and troubleshooting services. Parks Associates estimates that revenues for remote tech support services have...

I had blogged a couple of weeks ago about Cablevision's strategy of allowing subscribers to access PC content on their TVs without deploying new set-top boxes, media adapters, etc. I should also mention that another company - IPVN - also has a solution called "Send To TV." This is a nifty idea - anything that can eliminate having to install digital media adapters is a good thing. Solutions such as what Cablevision and IPVN resonate with consumers. In our All Eyes on...

This week has turned out to be 3DTV launch week, with major announcements from Panasonic and Best Buy , Samsung , Sony , LG , and others. With that, I've fielded some questions from the press that I thought I'd also post here. Here are some of the common questions we're getting, along with our analysis. What should we expect in terms of 3DTV displays as a percentage of all HDTV displays? In this article , Samsung notes that 3-4 million of the expected 35 million TVs sold in...

On average, U.S. home systems integrators, who have had revenues fall for the past two years, expect sales to pick up by more than 9% in 2010 over 2009, according to Home Systems: Channel and Consumer Monitor. This report includes results of a fourth-quarter 2009 survey of integrators installing home controls, entertainment systems, and energy management solutions, conducted as a joint effort from international research firm Parks Associates and the Custom Electronic Design &...