New Services, Connected Devices and Content create challenges for device manufacturers

Parks Associates today announced IBM will host the special session "Smart Home Unified by Cloud" at CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase on Wednesday, June 29. This session will address the expanding demands of the consumer experience, driven by the growing complexity of connected CE and digital content.

IBM is a Platinum Sponsor of CONNECTIONS™, hosted by international research firm Parks Associates on June 28-30 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. IBM panel session, "Smarter Home Unified by Cloud," will be held on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 1:30 pm and will be moderated by Scott Burnett, Director, Global Consumer Electronics Industry, IBM. The session focus is on use cases and services that enable an ecosystem of partners and new paths to revenue and includes the following speakers:

Paul Brody, Global Industry Leader, Electronics, IBM
Oliver Goh, CEO, Shaspa Research Ltd.
Robert Stepanian, Ph.D., CEO, NexStep, Inc.
Bob Scaglione, Chief Marketing Officer, Sharp Electronics Corporation
Russell MacAdam, Director, Office of Product Development, Lutron Electronics Co., Inc.

For additional information on the IBM panel session, visit www.ibm.com/events/CONNECTIONS2011.

"Between 2011 and 2015, the number of connected home network nodes worldwide will surge from 1.7 billion to 8.2 billion," said Kurt Scherf, VP, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates. "These new classes of devices and systems will create immense demand for ubiquitous content access. Moving services to the cloud is the next logical step, and IBM's insight in this area is invaluable as companies seek to simplify this multidevice environment while gaining a competitive edge with convenient and innovative solutions."

U.S. consumers place significantly greater importance on Internet connectivity, device interoperability, content/service availability, and customer service as criteria for future purchases versus past purchases, according to IBM's whitepaper “The connected consumer challenge: Extending the electronics experience through services.” IBM will feature this whitepaper at CONNECTIONS™, highlighting insights and research to guide electronics companies and manufacturers in providing compelling service experiences to consumers. The whitepaper is available to download at www.parksassociates.com/ibm.

For information on CONNECTIONS™, visit www.connectionsus.com.

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