Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"Connected Europe: By the Numbers," follow up from CONN EU Amsterdam

Kurt Scherf, VP of Research and Principal Analyst of Parks Associates presented "Connected Europe: By the Numbers" at the CONNECTIONS Europe Summit held November 4th in Amsterdam.

Kurt discussed the scope of Parks Associates research in the digital home and particularly in Europe. The past 18 – 24 months have brought strong development of connected CE devices such as TVs and Blu-ray players – large percentage of these devices are now connected. The role of the service provider is critical with providing the links to content and serving as gateway to premium content (BBC iPlayer, Verizon’s OTT offerings).

Residential Gateways are becoming increasingly important, with the other 50% of installations featuring an RG. For consumers, advantages are monitoring and basic applications. The presence of an RG rates highly with customer satisfaction with service provider services. Important RG services include the following: support, security, warranty services, and online backup. There are large opportunities for service provides who offer total home network support.

Things to watch in the Connected CE space include: the role of service providers in driving home network architecture; cloud media and home content brought together; design of user interfaces; integration of web services; role of CE companies at offering services; and evolution of content protection.

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