DALLAS, TX — (Marketwired) — 05/24/16 — Parks Associates kicked off the first day of today with sessions and keynotes examining the innovations, business models, and trends for the connected home ecosystems, including the disruptive effects of connected technologies on the consumer-based IoT. The firm–s leading analysts discussed new research today, and the keynote speakers included , Chief Evangelist for Alexa and Echo at Amazon, and , SVP & GM of at Comcast–s Xfinity Home.
“Today–s average U.S. broadband household owns over eight connected CE devices, an increase from less than seven in 2013,” said , President of Parks Associates. “CONNECTIONS attendees gained enormous insight today from Amazon and Comcast about how companies are capturing market share by embracing the next phase of the connected home.”
Since the first CONNECTIONS in 1996, the conference has evolved into the premier event in the connected home space. At this year–s event, May 24-26 in San Francisco, more than 650 attendees participated in panel discussions focused on the converging IoT industries — including smart home, connected entertainment, and mobile ecosystems.
“Amazon had a significant presence at CES 2016 in promoting its Echo/Alexa, which is helping push smart home into mass-market consciousness. Comcast XFINITY is in the top three of security providers in the U.S., behind ADT and AT&T, which highlights the disruptive influence of service providers as they–ve entered the security markets with IoT solutions,” Sikes said. “The first day of CONNECTIONS provides an informed overview of strategies to engage consumers and the trends that bought us to this phase of the connected home, with companies like Ericsson discussing their connected car strategies, Samsung sharing plans for VR, and Intel emphasizing the importance of privacy and security safeguards in the smart home.”
Daniel Herscovici delivered the opening keynote at 10:15 a.m., and David Isbitski delivers the keynote at 2:15 p.m.
“Consumers want simple smart home solutions that provide peace of mind, modern lifestyle conveniences and easy-to-use services,” said Daniel Herscovici, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Xfinity Home, Comcast. “By redefining the connected home platform and determining how to best get it into consumer households, we can overcome adoption challenges and convert customers to true end-to-end solutions, services and experiences, such as Xfinity Home.”
CONNECTIONS also features sessions on May 24 with speakers and topics focused on the role of service providers in the smart home, device and platform integration, the impact of cloud services, innovative user interfaces for CE and streaming content, and IoT opportunities for connected health and wearables. Other comments from today–s speakers:
, vice president, product development of GreatCall, who participates in the session “IoT: Smart Home and Connected Health Applications,” said, “Connected health plays a key role in the active aging space. With the majority of older adults wishing to stay in their homes, we need to ensure that they are healthy, safe, and connected in order to maintain their independence. Conferences such as CONNECTIONS where we explore critical questions and develop new strategies are essential to future success.”
, VP of Product Management, Clearleap, who participates in the session “Disruption in Interfaces: Evolving Cloud Services and Content Access,” said, “Viewers have two main expectations when they log into a streaming service: being able to access the content they want, and watching a video without any technical issues. In order for service providers to excel at both, they need a cloud-based solution that offers scale and reliability, and the ability to gain data insights to help them make informed decisions about price points, content offerings and device compatibility.”
, Director IoT Business Development, LG Electronics, who participates in the session “Driving Value with New Use Cases in the Smart Home,” said, “The smart home is revolutionizing the household living experience and enabling consumers to better manage their busy lifestyles. LG is keen to work further with ecosystem players to promote interoperability and drive value with new consumer-centric use cases.”
Parks Associates concludes the first day of CONNECTIONS with a party celebrating the 20th anniversary of the event and the 30 years that the market research firm has been in business. May 25, the second day of the conference, feature keynotes by Rob Comstock, Executive Vice President, Operations, Cablevision Systems Corporation, and Robert Parker, SVP of Engineering for SmartThings.
include Reception Sponsors CEL and Zonoff; Session Sponsors Icontrol Networks and PlumChoice; Lunch Sponsors Coldwell Banker and NXP; Silver Sponsors Alarm.com, Assurant, Asurion, Centercode, ROC-Connect, Support.com, ULE Alliance, WiZR, and ZigBee Alliance; Bronze Sponsors Audio Analytic, Ayla Networks, Cirrent, EVRYTHNG, Flextronics, Honeywell, HP, iQor, mnubo, People Power, PlanetEcosystems, WeatherBug Home, and Z-Wave; Program Guide Sponsor Vivint; Breakfast Sponsors Greenwave Systems and leakSMART; and Break Sponsors Home8, HomeAdvisor, Nortek Security & Control, State Farm, and Tyco.
For more information on CONNECTIONS, visit . Follow the conference on Twitter at @CONNECTIONS_US, #CONNUS16, and on the . To schedule an interview with an analyst or request specific research, contact Holly Sprague at , 720.987.6614.
Parks Associates– 20th-annual CONNECTIONS: The Premier Connected Home Conference will take place May 24-26 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in San Francisco. CONNECTIONS hosts over 650 executives from the connected entertainment, IoT, and smart home industries and is focused specifically on business strategies to fully engage consumers in the connected home experience.
The event provides networking opportunities and insights from industry players in entertainment, mobile, and smart home market segments. Parks Associates– analyst team highlights consumer and industry research throughout the event, including technology adoption and trends, product and service forecasts, evaluation of new business strategies, and recommendations about technology innovations, strategic partnerships, monetization opportunities, and value-added services. Throughout the three-day event, sponsors offer tabletop demos during networking events, spotlighting new technology innovations and services.
For more information, visit .
Holly Sprague
Parks Associates
720-987-6614
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