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“My, that’s a large phone that you have,” said the lady. No, I wasn’t in a bar and it wasn’t a pick-up line. It wasn’t even aimed at me, but rather at my daughter who was toting around a gigantic Windows phone. Or as I like to think of it, her portable TV, since all she really uses it for is Netflix.
I’ve become a believer in the Connected Car, after wondering for quite some time why I should care about the concept at all. But my epiphany, if you can call it that, only came about when I didn’t buy one - and that doesn’t bode too well for the current market.
By the end of 2014, there were 18.3 million actively connected tablets in the U.S., a 90 percent increase from 2013, according to The NPD Group Connected Intelligence Mobile Broadband Market Share and Forecast Report. Aggressive promotions that heavily discounted or gave away tablets, carrier subsidies, and simplified service plans helped add more than 8.7 million new cellular tablet customers last year.
There are few categories in the consumer electronics market as dynamic as the smart home market right now, and for good reason. Smart home products like connected, programmable thermostats, networked cameras, and Wi-Fi connected light bulbs allow users a level of control over the systems and appliances in their homes that most have never had before. The category is growing as well- according to The NPD Group’s new Smart Home point-of-sale tracking service, sales of home automation products, which include security and monitoring products, smart lighting, and system controllers, have grown 27 percent in the past year as the market size has approached $400 million. And for the most part, consumers have a good idea of what smart home products are. According to NPD’s recent Home Automation Study, 78 percent of consumers said they were familiar with smart home products.
The Las Vegas Strip is a strange place at any time of year, but many of us only experience it during CES when it is overflowing with an eclectic mix of tech geeks, box-makers and execs all looking for - or touting - the next Great Invention. Without CES, the crowd is the more typical mixture of tourists and party-goers armed with “selfie-sticks” and smartphones, as I discovered this week.
Smartwatch ownership in the U.S. is forecast to reach 9 percent of the U.S. adult population by 2016, closing in on activity trackers. According to The NPD Group Connected Intelligence Wearables Forecast, as smartwatch penetration grows, activity tracker penetration will begin to plateau. By the end of 2016 activity tracker ownership will have peaked at 32 million after growing significantly for four years.
Millennial men aged 18-34 are the most aware and interested in subscribing directly to TV channel apps. These apps allow viewers to subscribe directly to a TV network without also requiring a subscription to a cable or satellite channel bundle.
The NPD Group announced today the launch of its new home automation point- of-sale (POS) data and advisory service. The service comprises consumer panel-based reporting, qualitative reports, U.S. point-of-sale data, and unique analysis from NPD’s leading industry experts to provide a comprehensive view of this rapidly emerging market.
2014 marked the year TV networks began to decouple from the traditional cable and satellite distribution model. For decades, the large array of channels offered by pay TV operators have been the primary way consumers obtained access to programming. This is changing as the addressable market for pay TV is saturated and consumers now have alternative ways to watch TV shows, movies, and sports.
Twenty-five years ago last Friday, Depeche Mode inadvertently almost started a riot. The band had finally become “big” in the U.S., but had not realized just how big. As a result, when they agreed to a CD signing session at a local record store – the Wherehouse record store – they had no idea that 15,000 people would turn up. Whoops. The message went out on the radio: “for all of you with radios listening to this, pass the message that Depeche Mode will only be here for three more hours.”