Blog articles from 04/2010

HP this afternoon announced its purchase of Palm, the battered smartphone company finally finding itself in the hands of a stronger owner. We were never optimistic about Palm's viability in the smartphone business even as it rolled out WebOS in 2009. Today's results validated that the cutting-throat competition in the smartphone market just produced another victim. It will be interesting to see if HP will continue to support Pre and Pixi, or HP will just make Palm technology as a...

Verizon introduced YouTube and streaming music access to FiOS TV customers yesterday. They have screen shots and video available for a closer look. Verizon's Internet Radio and Internet Videos services are both accessible via Media Manager, which already allows subscribers to search and view on their TVs user-generated content from online video-sharing sites blip.tv, Dailymotion and Veoh. In addition, Verizon has expanded the Media Manager service, making it available to all FiOS TV...

Bill Ablondi, Director of Home Systems Research from Parks Associates is speaking at the 2010 ConnectivityWeek. Bill is moderating the panel, " Understanding Residential Energy Management " on Wednesday, May 26th from 3:30 - 5:00 PM. The race to connect homes to the grid is heating up. With an estimated 20 million meters installed in North America through 2009, utilities are reaching out to consumers to help shift loads through dynamic pricing and demand response programs....

A 3D TV? A smartphone? A smart meter? Digital Lifestyles: Outlook 2010, a new industry report focuses on the consumer, with an emphasis on expanding and enhancing user experiences in communications, entertainment, support, and connectivity. This report provides analysis, forecasts, and industry and consumer drivers for a variety of digital lifestyle categories including: Access Services, Television Services, Mobile Services and Devices, Digital Media and Gaming, Trends in...

Throughout its 24 years of history, Parks Associates has been grappling with the question of when and how home control systems will become mainstream. Home systems analyst Bill Ablondi , in Parks Associates’ most recent report, Home Systems: Home Controls-- Analysis and Forecasts flips the question. Ablondi and colleague Farhan Abid say that the current value propositions for consumers to purchase control systems are not sufficient to appeal to mass markets. Either the...

The popularity of online video consumption is forcing service providers to reposition as media companies with new offerings such as TV Everywhere, according to this report, Online Video and Broadband Provider Strategies. The number of U.S. broadband households watching premium online content doubled in the last year. Over 25 million U.S. broadband households regularly watch full-length TV shows online, and over 20 million watch movies online. Connected CE devices are affecting...

Parks Associates is supporting The Cable Show 2010 from May 11-13 in Los Angeles. The Cable Show 2010 , hosted by the National Cable & Telecommunication Association (NCTA), is your three-day immersion into everything cable can do. The people, the platforms and the potential for new business growth are all here, along with the invaluable attributes only a live event like The Cable Show can deliver.

The set-top box (STB) is the primary point of entry into the digital home for television services, including cable TV, DTH, and IPTV. This device has evolved beyond its historical role as a simple black box sitting on top of a large TV set into a smaller form-factor device supporting a variety of functions, notably interactive television applications. Service providers worldwide are aggressively upgrading their equipment to support the migration away from analog television and toward...