Last month I made a link to a productconcept whereby the consumer uses a scale and a wireless connection to control his change of weight (preferrably with a downwards trend).

Just today Parks associates relaeses a studt which states that the e-health market is growing rapidly, which is great for the providers, but also for CAT-iq.

Service providers are in a unique position to enter the e-Health space, which will grow to serve over seven million people in the U.S. and Europe by 2012, according to a new white paper from Parks associates. These consumers range from seniors with chronic conditions to younger consumers who want to self-manage their personal health.

e-Health Opportunities for Global Service Providers, released today on the research firm’s Website, outlines strategies and opportunities for service providers in e-Health, a term that refers to advanced healthcare technologies and electronic delivery of medical services. e-Health offers revenue opportunities for service providers in both the enterprise and consumer markets.

“Service providers cannot ignore the opportunities inherent in the e-Health care model, Millions of people stand to benefit from e-Health applications. Providers should start drafting business plans, forging partnerships, testing hardware and software, and conducting field trials.”

The paper asserts that, while the health field is complex, with issues such as insurance and reimbursement, providers have dealt with similarly complicated service sectors. For example, digital television services required negotiating franchise and licensing fees with a variety of different players.

“Service providers are in a unique, once-in-a-lifetime position to enter and serve this growing service industry,” Wang said. “The home will be the central location in the new preventive-care model in health applications, with broadband enabling home medical services, telemedicine applications, and patient monitoring.”

Cable telephony subscriber growth continues to be strong, with almost 8 million new subscribers added around the world over the past 12 months, reports In-Stat. Growth in North America has been particularly strong, as cable operators near the end of their transition to voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP)-enabled network architectures, the high-tech market research firm says.

"Current priorities for cable telephony service providers are expanding the availability of their service and attracting business end-users, especially small and medium-sized businesses," says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst.

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

- Worldwide cable telephony service revenues are on track to reach $12.6 billion in 2008, up from $10.7 billion in 2007.

- Total worldwide cable telephony subscribers are projected to reach 37 million by the end of 2008, and rise to over 64 million by 2012.

- In the US, questions remain about whether or not the cable service bundle needs to have a wireless voice component. While wireless service is an integral part of the service bundle in countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, the collapse of the Pivot joint venture in the US has put wireless service on the back burner for most US cable operators.

The research, "34 Million Subscribers: Worldwide Cable Telephony Services Continue to Expand", covers the worldwide market for cable telephony. It discusses the business case for cable telephony services, discusses the availability of the service, and examines specific network architectures. In addition, it updates leading cable TV operator telephony deployment strategies and presents the results of a US cable telephony subscriber consumer survey. It provides forecasts for worldwide cable telephony subscribers, VoIP cable telephony subscribers, and installed cable telephony lines through 2012. It also forecasts cable telephony service revenues and "Voice-over-Broadband" cable telephony subscribers over the next five years.

Althoug CAT-iq offers much more than telephony alone, this indicates that the cable market can and will be a supporter of CAT-iq technology.

It’s nice to see companies placing an emphasis on going green with their products. Case in point - Panasonic announced  that their new lineup of DECT cordless telephones are 100 % Energy Star Qualified.

In addition, the company took several initiatives to make their products more environmentally friendly including:

- Use rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries which are accepted in a free rechargeable battery recycling program

- Packaging has been reduced by 30 percent in volume

- No more styrofoam in the packaging 

Read the full article. 

Driven by the still rising number of broadband subscribers, the desire to share bandwidth, residential gateway use by telecom broadband providers, and increases in Asia/Pacific, the worldwide installed base of home networks is expected to break the 200 million mark by the end of 2008. Compared to previous years, the growth of the total market for broadband and network customer premises equipment (CPE) is slowing, but is expected to remain positive through at least 2012 as technological upgrades will spur replacements, reports In-Stat. The total CPE market includes broadband modems, routers, and residential gateway equipment for DSL, cable, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH), Fixed Wireless Broadband (FWB), and Fixed Satellite Broadband (FSB), the high-tech market research firm says.

"With worldwide broadband subscribers predicted to exceed 500 million in 2010, there will be a very significant installed base of equipment that presents opportunities for replacements and upgrades," says Joyce Putscher, In-Stat analyst. "Gigabit Ethernet, VoIP, the DSL Forum's TR-69, and 802.11n are examples of drivers for CPE upgrades and replacements over the next several years. But, we see a potential issue in terms of consumers' lack of knowledge regarding the benefits and differences between 802.11g and 802.11n, which could spell trouble for 802.11n upgrades."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

- Worldwide CPE unit shipments grew 15% in 2007 to 149 million.
- By 2010, gateways will garner a majority share of global annual CPE revenue.
- By 2012, we expect routers to still be comprised of a higher percentage of wireless units than DSL gateways. Asia/Pacific's share of routers will continue to increase through 2011. This region's router market is increasingly being driven by China, due to that region's annual rise in the number of home networks.
- Worldwide home LAN PHY interface shipments will surpass 500 million during 2010.
- "Green" network equipment not among the most important features in consumers' minds.

ETSI Headquarters, Sophia Antipolis, France

Internet on TV Collaboration with Yahoo!®, Mobile Internet Device Momentum and 'Boundless' Opportunities for Software Developers Highlighted

At the Intel Developer Forum, Intel Corporation introduced the Intel® Media Processor CE 3100, the first in a new family of purpose-built System on Chips (SoCs) for Consumer Electronics devices based on the company's popular Intel architecture (IA) blueprint.

Executives on Wednesday also provided updates on the Mobile Internet Device (MID) category and Intel Atom™ processor, unveiled a brand with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. around the shift to 3-D movie-making and outlined a number of efforts to speed many-core processor software design.

The CE 3100 has been developed for Internet-connected consumer electronics (CE) products such as optical media players, connected CE devices, advanced cable set top boxes and digital TVs. The media processor (previously codenamed "Canmore") combines leading-edge CE features for high-definition video support, home-theater quality audio and advanced 3-D graphics, with the performance, flexibility and compatibility of IA-based hardware and software.

Intel expects to begin shipments of this product next month. Intel and its customers have been working together to develop a variety of products for emerging growth areas – consumer electronics, MIDs, netbooks and embedded computers – each based on Intel architecture that enables uncompromised Internet access.

"As consumers look to stay connected and entertained regardless of where they are and what device they are using, the Web continues to affect our lives in new ways and is quickly moving to the TV thanks to a new generation of Internet-connected CE devices," said Eric Kim, Intel senior vice president and general manager of the company's Digital Home Group. "As Intel delivers its first IA SoC with leading-edge performance and Internet compatibility for consumer electronics devices, we are providing a powerful and flexible technology foundation upon which the industry can quickly innovate upon. This technology foundation will help the high-tech industry bring devices to market faster, as well as encourage new designs and inspire new services, such as connecting the TV to the Internet."

Some weeks ago we started to help in the creation of new CAT-iq product concepts and ideas. This as support for the international CAT-iq design competition for students, organized by DECT Forum and Jakajima.

Together with redesignme, we set up a CAT-iq page, end of July. So far 20 ideas came up. Not all of them are great, but some are interesting concepts, and not just telephony related!

Go to the CAT-iq page at the Redesignme site, and decide for yourself.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US regulator, has approved the HTC Dream, the first handset based on Google's Android mobile platform. The filing hints at a November 10 release and T-Mobile USA is set to be the first operator to offer the device. According to an AFP report, a spokesman at Deutsche Telekom - T-Mobile USA's parent company - confirmed earlier speculation that the operator will launch the device but declined to comment on launch dates. It is expected, however, that the operator will launch the device in time for Christmas. Seen as a competitor to Apple's iPhone, the Washington Post reports that the HTC Dream will feature a touchscreen, Wi-Fi, a BlackBerry-style 'jogball,' a Safari web browser, and Google applications such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube.

In a separate development Google has released a new beta version of the Android Software Development Kit (SDK), version 0.9, and hinted that the platform will be coming-out of beta mode soon. Google wrote on its official Android blog: "The beta SDK that we're releasing today is the first big step on the SDK's road to compatibility with 1.0. Since this is a beta release, applications developed with it may not quite be compatible with devices running the final Android 1.0. However, the APIs are now pretty stable and we don't expect any major changes." New applications in version 0.9 include an alarm clock, calculator, camera, music player, picture viewer, and SMS/MMS messaging.

In earlier blogs we discussed about the possibility to deploy Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile in future CAT-iq products. So far the DECT hardware vendors went for a low cost solution, and developed their own propietory OS. Also the used hardware for these devices are low cost and couldn't handle mobile OS's at all.

With future products in mind hardware vendors can do both; develop low cost 'CAT-iq phones' on one hand and develop 'CAT-iq communication devices with extended specs like mobile phones' on the other hand.

The question is who dares to start first with this new type of products.   

 The number of hotspots providing public wireless LAN access continues to grow globally and more people are using them, reports In-Stat. But access revenues do not appear to be keeping up with the growth in use, the high-tech market research firm says.

"Because of this trend, hotspot operators are turning to other methods to generate revenues," says Daryl Schoolar, In-Stat analyst. "Operators have started bundling hotspot access with other services, such as fixed and mobile broadband. This way, consumers can access hotspots without paying a separate fee, and operators can generate some access revenue by bundling the cost of the service into a bigger service package that consumers are willing to purchase."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• According to an In-Stat consumer survey, people are increasingly using hotspots for personal reasons.
  
• Survey respondents are showing an increased reluctance to pay for hotspot access. Nearly 50% of respondents said they would only use a free hotspot.
  
• Access revenues will start to decline due to increased competition and users' reluctance to pay.

What does Hotspot Access has to do with CAT-iq, you could ask yourself. 

Well, as this research concludes that operators will offer combination offers Hotspot access and fixed/mobile broadband, than the link with CAT-iq could become interesting.