Stores have an advantage in the smart home market, expected to sell more than 8 million devices by 2021, blogged Parks Associates' Brad Russell Wednesday. They're leveraging positions as trusted advisers for consumers and offering services free, said the analyst. It's influencing Amazon and Google, which formed partnerships with the likes of Best Buy, Kohl's, Lowe's, Sears and Walmart, he noted.
Amazon said Thanksgiving-Cyber Monday (see 1711280055 or 1711280049) was its “best-ever holiday shopping weekend for devices,” with “millions” of its branded devices sold. The Echo Dot and Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa were the best-selling products on Amazon.com, it said Tuesday.
Nearly 87 percent of U.S. residents want government to mandate stricter data security for connected cars, said a survey of 1,000 by cyber systems provider Thales. Three out of five are more concerned about internet-based vehicle technology than five years ago.
Akamai completed its acquisition of cybersecurity firm Nominum, a deal disclosed in October, the buyer announced Monday.
Nearly 91 percent of government websites don't meet at least one key performance measure, with a third falling short on security standards, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation reported Monday. Little progress has been made since ITIF's 2016 study (see 1703080055), said Vice President Daniel Castro, urging the Trump administration to "move quickly to address these failures." The report analyzed 469 of the "most popular" federal sites, building on a 2016 analysis of 297. Report rankings are based on metrics including page-load speed, mobile friendliness, accessibility and security. Vote.gov earned the highest ranking, 95.5, and federalreserve.gov scored lowest, 36.5. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's nist.gov ranked third with 87.2; fcc.gov had 81.7 and ftc.gov, 76.5. Recommendations include the government launching a website modernization sprint and requiring all federal agencies report site analytics.
NordVPN, a virtual private network security provider, is offering a 77 percent off Black Friday deal during what it said is one of the busiest times of the year for online fraud. The offer is $2.75 per month with a three-year agreement. As more people shop online for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, the risk for cybercrime is higher, and “not all Internet retailers are prepared to handle this kind of growth,” said the company. Websites could be spoofed with fraudulent sites set up by hackers to steal users’ data, or an e-commerce site may not use a secure encryption protocol to protect customers’ information, it said. Among its tips for e-commerce safety: (1) Look for https ahead of the website’s URL indicating a secure protocol and that data is encrypted properly; (2) don’t share financial information over public Wi-Fi networks; (3) be wary of providing personal information; (4) choose strong passwords; and (5) use a VPN.
With the sustained growth of Netflix, Hulu and other subscription VOD services, there’s a “telling shift” in the amount of time Americans spend watching TV and movies, and how they’re watching, said NPD in a Wednesday report. As the number of SVOD subscriptions continues to grow, “so too does the amount of time viewers watch television and movies on their TVs, personal computers and mobile devices,” it said. NPD canvassed 7,290 online viewers in August and found on average they were spending an additional hour weekly consuming TV and movies than they did a year earlier, it said. “Digital content continues to reshape the video landscape,” said NPD. “SVOD had the highest year-over-year increase, with almost half the population streaming video, but purchasing downloadable content is also gaining traction.” NPD said the 12 months ending in August saw an 8-percentage-point year-over-year rise in subscription video streaming and a 2-percentage-point increase in electronic sell-through, where consumers pay a one-time fee to download and keep a media file, it said. The share of U.S. consumers using only SVOD services to watch content increased to 15 percent this August from 11 percent in the same month a year earlier, it said.
Voice-controlled speakers “are probably the hottest category for this holiday” in tech, said Stephen Baker, NPD vice president-industry analysis, on a Monday webinar. The category is “just going to explode, and a big reason for that” is that the two biggest platforms, Google Home and Amazon Echo, “are being sold by brands that really don’t care about price,” he said. That NPD estimates U.S. household penetration of voice speakers is only 10 percent means they have “a long way to go” before reaching consumer mainstream, he said. He sees holiday tech revenue rising 0.5 percent this year, the sector’s best Q4 performance in years. “Consumers, as we’ve seen all through 2017, are not put off by higher prices,” he said.
The Display Week 2018 conference is seeking papers on augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence; wearable displays, sensors, and devices; and other areas by Dec. 1, said the Society for Information Display event organizers Saturday. Display Week is May 20-25 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Blockchain technology has policy implications that "will require close study," the Business Software Alliance Foundation reported Monday. BSA urged world governments to "start considering these issues." Last month (see 1710100061), the State Department held a blockchain forum.