Cloud Media tops CONNECTIONS 2011 Agenda

Parks Associates released the preliminary agenda for the 2011 CONNECTIONS Conference, featuring the core topic areas of mobility and communications, entertainment and content, connected consumer electronics, and cloud-based value-added services.

The three-day event, June 28-30 at Santa Clara, Californina, offers a unique mix of market research presentations, trending data, insight from industry leaders, and discussion of the current strategies and future challenges in providing connectivity and technology services for consumers.

Cloud media is an important topic at this year’s CONNECTIONS due to the challenges for this market in reaching its tremendous potential. Parks Associates research finds consumers are highly interested in the cloud concept, notably the prospect of having anytime, anywhere access to their media. However, less than one-third of U.S. broadband households see the value of the digital locker concept specifically for music, photo, or video content, due in large part to current fragmentation of the market.

For more information, visit www.connectionsus.com.

Fujitsu Launches Global Cloud Strategy

Fujitsu launched its global cloud strategy -- a strategy developed through the company's real experience in working with customers on cloud computing services and delivery of solutions across the world.

Fujitsu views its cloud computing services as an evolution, not a revolution, and views cloud services in four modes. The infrastructure mode and application mode are an extension of the conventional services being offered by Fujitsu. The activity mode and content mode, however, represent a significant shift in the way the ICT industry creates value, through the emergence of new business models to create new services for buyers.

With decades-long service business experience, Fujitsu can provide the utmost support in enabling large- and medium-sized customers to transition and migrate their largest and most complex ICT environments to join any mode of the cloud consumption model, with minimal disruption and maximum security.

Interview with Eyecon Technologies

Eyecon Technologies' CEO, Meir Friedlander will be speaking on the Bringing “Cloud Media” to Consumer Electronics Devices panel on Wednesday, June 3rd at 2:30 PM.

Here is more insight into Eyecon Technologies...

What is your company's/division's newest initiative?

Launching a revolutionary mobile software application that allows consumers to use their smartphone, MID or netbook to browse, navigate, and play content on any connected media device. The application will also synchronize content between the portable screen and the primary viewing or listening device, say a connected television for example, allowing interactive and social features to easily run in parallel.

What is your company's biggest challenge?

Proving that a two screen parallel viewing, navigation and interactive experience is more practical and functional than viewing widgets and a ten foot GUI on the television screen with a remote control for navigation.

What are your company's long term goals?

Become the "go to" interface for how people find and interact with their digital media content.

What is your company's most successful product/service?
We're new and just starting out but expect great things from our initial product release in June and have already gained traction with content owners, CE vendors, and service providers.

What do you perceive as your company's greatest strength?

We've chosen to fight the right battle. Browsing content on the TV screen has failed in the past (see WebTV) and Media Center approaches lacked the portability and synchronization needed to engage consumers. Our approach not only benefits the consumer, enabling them to discover and navigate the overwhelming number of content choices that are now available, but also helps service and content providers monetize digital distribution.

Connected consumer electronics sales to exceed 100 million units annually by 2013

Consumer demand for digital media and online content will push worldwide annual sales of connected CE to more than 100 million units by 2013, according to the new Parks Associates report Home Networks for Consumer Electronics.

The market for connected CE includes networked TVs, Blu-ray players, game consoles, home media servers, and set-top boxes. Through network and Internet connections, these devices can access and display home network content such as photos and music and retrieve online content such as widgets, games, and video from Hulu and YouTube.

Diverse user scenarios create multiple challenges for technology developers, according to Scherf, including interface design as well as connectivity.

Home Networks for Consumer Electronics covers consumer and technology trends in the connected CE market and provides forecasts for multiple connected CE product categories. For more information, visit http://www.parksassociates.com/, or contact 972-490-1113, sales@parksassociates.com.

The CONNECTIONS™ conference, June 2-4, features a Connected CE track, including the panels Extending the Reach of Wired Networks and Interfaces and Bringing “Cloud Media” to Consumer Electronics Devices. For registration, or to request a press pass, visit http://www.connectionsconference.com/.

To view the full press release, click here.

Getting CE Connected

There are two types of media use cases driving the digital/connected home concept, where multiple devices access rich media from a variety of sources. In both scenarios, the value of connected consumer electronics (CE) will increase as they evolve into media receivers that can discover, aggregate, access, and display media.

The two scenarios for connected CE are the media server, where connected CE devices access content stored on computers and other storage devices inside the home, and the cloud media concept, where connected CE devices link to access services – television, broadband, etc. – to receive streaming and on-demand content from outside of the home.

The Media Server Concept offers solutions to consumers as they acquire large collections of media, both personal and professional, and seek the best means to backup and distribute this content.

The Cloud Media Concept is less centralized. Consumer electronics receive premium content and application services from access networks. These services include entertainment, communications, and media from closed networks (cable, satellite, IPTV) and the so-called “over-the-top” services riding on top of the open Internet.

The CONNECTIONS™ Europe session How Consumer Electronics Get Connected will discuss both scenarios, how they are likely to influence design and sales of other CE and services, and how they evolve together within the home.