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June 7, 2012

Best Buy Keynote concludes CONNECTIONS™ Conference at TIA 2012, highlights new developments and opportunities in the connected home

Industry Leaders – Including AT&T, Verizon and Best Buy - Met at Parks Associates’ Conference This Week

CONNECTIONS™ at TIA concluded today with a keynote from Best Buy, where Kristen Bowring, Senior Director, Platform Lead Home and Energy Management, discussed the retailer's efforts to expand its home energy and appliance offerings based on consumer research. The conference, which ran June 5-7, also featured keynotes from AT&T, who presented the company's new Digital Home initiative, and Verizon, who discussed the provider's efforts to increase speed to the home to enable the "borderless lifestyle."

Hosted by international market research firm Parks Associates, the 16th annual CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase focused on value-added services for services providers including customer support, cloud services, voice and gesture controls, mobile platforms and applications, TV everywhere services and more.

"Parks Associates added extra value to our attendees and sponsor with our successful collocation with TIA," said Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates. "We were pleased to host major players in the consumer and services markets at CONNECTIONS™, with three days of informative sessions, networking, and product displays in the Connected Home Pavilion."

Parks Associates presented new research and findings at the event, highlighting new opportunities, market growth, and consumer trends:

  • Connected home apps worldwide will grow to 13 billion by year-end 2016
  • Two-thirds of consumers who use Siri at least weekly are highly satisfied
  • 37% of current iPhone 4S users “definitely want” Siri-like capabilities on their next TV set
  • 75% of U.S. consumers are interested in a cloud service for photos; 47% for movies
  • The percentage of U.S. smart-TV owners playing games on their sets has grown 31% since 2010, while the increase for watching TV shows is 42% and movies is 36%
  • 14% of U.S. tablet users watch TV Everywhere services
  • 18% of U.S. tablet users share comments on social sites while watching TV
  • 45% of U.S. consumers are comfortable with targeted ads based on their viewing habits
  • Tablet owners are five times more likely to desire a multiroom music system than all consumers
  • Worldwide growth of consumer support services from $5.0 billion in 2012 to $17.5 billion in 2016

"The number of households with connected devices is on a steep rise," Sikes said. "For example, North American consumers will buy 32 million media tablets in 2012. Our data show U.S. consumers plan to continue CE purchasing, with significant percentages planning to increase their CE spending in 2012. These factors, in combination with the proliferation of IP, is changing the business models for service providers, retailers, manufacturers, and technology companies, and every year, CONNECTIONS™ is the place to discuss the implications of these changes."

CONNECTIONS™ Data Sheet: http://www.parksassociates.com/bento/uploads/file/connections/CONN2012-Press-2012.pdf

Contact Holly Sprague at [email protected] or 720.987.6614 to schedule an interview with a speaker or request materials. The CONNECTIONS™ blog address is www.connectionsindustryinsights.com. Follow us on Twitter at @CONNECTIONS_US and #connUS12.

CONNECTIONS™ sponsors: CEA, IBM, Hitachi, Actiontec, Affinegy, Allegro Software, Digitalsmiths, F-Secure, Jungo, PacketVideo, Quatrro, Radialpoint, Sutherland Global Services, Verizon, Waterstone Management Group, Arrayent, Irdeto, People Power, Sigma Designs, Veveo, and HomePlug Powerline Alliance.

More information can be found at www.connectionsconference.com.

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About Parks Associates: Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com