Blog articles from 05/2011

Parks Associates’ Home Systems Research Director Bill Ablondi will participate in three key events at the 2011 ConnectivityWeek Conference May 23-25, Santa Clara, California. The events include the Consumer Symposium, the “Home Consumers See Value” Panel, and the “Service Providers Make the Case” Panel.   Bill Ablondi is participating as an expert panelist during Consumer Symposium: "Kickoff Roundtables"  on Monday, May 23 from 11:30 AM -...

Today's television services throughout the world are provided with at least a non-interactive EPG, consisting of a menu of information on scheduled linear TV programming. Operators or broadcasters deliver these menus as a dedicated channel, broadcast by specialized systems located in the provider's central distribution facility. Customers can tune into these specialized channels in order to view all of the available linear TV channels and the current and upcoming programs available on...

Smartphones represent a new lifestyle. Consumer desire for that lifestyle has accelerated the traditional mobile phone replacement cycle and will drive near-term hypergrowth of the smartphone market.  Parks Associates forecasts over 2 billion people worldwide will own at least one smartphone in 2015, with unit sales growing over 175% from 2010. Hardware and software innovations, such as dual-facing camera-supported video chat and app-enabled content consumption, will continue...

Parks Associates' Mobile Health: Uptake by Consumers and Care Providers is a primary consumer survey that examines use of mobile technologies by both consumers and care workers in health applications. Consumer Topics include: -- Use of mobile to access health and wellness information, track personal health conditions, and interact with care organizations  -- Use of mobile apps, widgets, Web 2.0 tools, games, and mobile social networking solutions for...

Ford wants to use the Google Prediction API to predict driver behavior and use that input to make cars perform better. The company's goal is to use cloud-based storage and computing to collect and process information about how drivers use their vehicles. The Google Prediction API, released last year by Google Labs, is designed for giving an application information about past user actions so it can better predict future behavior. The API (application programming interface) uses...

Join Parks Associates and PlumChoice for the complimentary Webcast The Market Opportunity for SMB Tech Support on June 2nd at 1 PM Central. We will explore the growth areas and market entry strategies for this market. Among the topics to be discussed are: -- Revenue opportunities for SMB support -- Understanding the market opportunities for different channel partners -- Identifying the current national brands in the SMB technical support marketplace --...

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK charity which exists to promote the study of computer science and related topics, especially at school level, and to put the fun back into learning computing. Their first product is about the size of a USB key, and is designed to plug into a TV or be combined with a touch screen for a low cost tablet. The expected price is $25 for a fully-configured system. They plan to develop, manufacture, and distribute this an ultra-low-cost...

The market for residential energy management (REM) solutions is entering a pervasive growth period characterized by the entrance of many more firms with a variety of solutions, growing consumer awareness and significantly increasing sales volumes over the next five years. Engaging consumers is critical to success in this market. Companies such as ADT, Best Buy, GE, Intel, and Verizon have entered the market from several different entry points; all have the marketing clout to educate...