Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

Los Angeles Times

High-Tech Industry Plugs Into Simplicity

The consumer electronics industry figures devices that can be set up in a home network — PCs, televisions and stereos that can talk to one another and share high-quality data, video and audio — are destined to be hot products. The trick is to simplify the networking part so that consumers will bite and, as Liao put it, "the market will expand to increase demand for TVs and all kinds of audiovisual devices."

The technology that wins out will be not only simple for the consumer but also cheap. When it comes to consumer electronics, "the price competition is so tough now that if a power line adds $20 to the price of a DVD player, I think that's a detriment," said analyst Kurt Scherf at market research firm Parks Associates. "I think $10 is a reasonable starting point."

From the article "High-Tech Industry Plugs Into Simplicity" By David Colker

Previously In The News

Ads Are Back

"There's a growing sense among analysts and technology vendors that cellphone users would prefer advertiser-supported entertainment too. For example, see this report from Parks Associates and USC's...

3-D TV sets are selling, but no instant craze

Paul Gagnon, an analyst with DisplaySearch, calculated that based on the NPD figures, about 20,000 of the flat-panel sets were sold by those major retailers. That's a tiny number compared with...

Blockbuster's OnDemand to become more accessible

The Blockbuster OnDemand service will be integrated into new Blu-ray players, home theater systems and high-definition televisions sold in the fall, and some 2009 models can be updated to be compat...

First on Mars, Take 2

In another bit o' news about online TV, a report released today by Parks Associates estimates that 2.5 million Americans and Canadians would be willing to pay up to $100 extra for a TV if it could...