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

Nielsen to track video game use

"It's not the old media world anymore," said Michael Cai, analyst with Parks Associates in Dallas, who estimates that spending on advertising within games will grow to more than $800 million in 201...

Make way for the iPad

Until recently, the price tag for home automation systems ranged from $30,000 to $50,000 and kept the industry stagnant, says Kurt Scherf, a market researcher at Dallas-based Parks Associates, whic...

Software Provides DVDs on Demand

With the software, retailers could download specific films requested by customers, who can place their orders online. The DVDs would then be delivered by mail or picked up at in-store kiosks simila...

IPO May Help Shutterfly Compete

Online photo companies have a high level of customer loyalty, said Harry Wang, a research analyst at Parks Associates. After a customer accumulates a lot of pictures on an online photography site,...