Qualcomm's CEO provides his thoughts on the future of connected devices. (Read Full Article)

"There is a place in the world for other kinds of connected devices beyond the mobile phone. You are going to see small lightweight computing devices, you are going to see smarter smartphones," said CEO Paul Jacobs.

"It makes sense to me to have a connected satnav device rather than an unconnected Satnav" Jacobs told Pocket-lint, confirming Qualcomm is working with satnav manufacturers on devices for the future. "Just as the connected PDA killed the unconnected PDA, the same will happen here. You are going to have up to date street maps, you’re going to be able to search. The same things will happen with cameras. The Flip [a cheap digital video camcorder] could offer you the ability to share video without the need for a computer by automatically uploading content over a network by what appears to be by magic, just like the magic experienced downloading a book with the Kindle."

At Parks Associates, we agree and think the living room is getting more crowded with digital devices. Key drivers for this growth include consumers’ insatiable appetites for high-definition television programming and services and a sharp decline in HDTV display prices. At the same time, television service providers, who are under pressure to ramp up highdefinition and DVR features of their own, are investing in more set-top boxes.

As key components for networked consumer electronics drop in cost (chief among them storage, silicon, and software), we will see a growing number of products targeting not only in-home connectivity but also connections to premium multimedia services. The connected consumer electronics market will evolve on two fronts, which will not necessarily be independent of each other. First, there will be a continued emphasis on creating products that interoperate and can share resources, such as centralized hard drives (multiroom settop boxes and network-attached storage devices chief among these examples). At the same time, with the onset of huge amounts of premium content and services available from the Internet, CE device manufacturers will launch new efforts to create connected devices that link to these services.

Parks Associates will be addressing the growth of connected devices at CONNECTIONS on June 25 at 2:30 pm. CONNECTED DEVICES: A Grown-up Home Network: Imagine the Possibilities! will address the role of home networking for entertainment, communications, and multimedia applications.

This panel will be moderated by Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, CONNECTIONS. Speakers include:

Jim Chase, Director of Business Development, Ubicom, Inc.
Chano Gomez, VP, Marketing, DS2
Eiji Kobayashi, President, HD-PLC Alliance
Adam Powers, Principal Engineer and Architect, Macrovision
Dan Salmonson, Director, Product Management, DivX, Inc.
Russell Zack, VP, Product Management, Anystream