Parks Associates: One-Fourth of Broadband Households in the U.K., Spain, and Germany Find at Least One Smart Home Device Very Appealing

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Jun 18, 2015) - Parks Associates today announced that Mario Moura, General Manager, Home Comfort & Energy Systems EMEA at Honeywell, will be giving a keynote address at CONNECTIONS™ Europe - IoT: Connected Entertainment and the Smart Home. The executive summit, which covers topics including the Internet of Things and the connected home, will be held November 10-11, 2015, in Amsterdam.

According to Parks Associates research, there were 721 million broadband households worldwide in 2014, and that number will reach 972 million by 2019. The prevalence of high-speed connections will drive the expansion of the Internet of Things in the European connected home. Among European broadband households, 17% in Germany, 22% in Spain, and 24% in the U.K. find a smart thermostat very appealing. However, EU households overwhelmingly prefer systems over individual devices, so interoperability will be a key challenge alongside building consumer awareness.

"Smart home adoption in Europe can be maximized by offering consumers both individual devices and systems that include multiple devices," said Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates. "Creating attractive and easy-to-use smart devices such as smart thermostats can be an easy entry point for consumers, service providers, and equipment manufacturers, but companies need to ensure their offerings are interoperable and expandable in order to fit within the larger smart home system. Honeywell, which recently introduced its Lyric™ thermostat, has decades of experience in this market, and we look forward to their insight at CONNECTIONS™ Europe."

The 2015 Advisory Board, which is responsible for shaping the agenda, includes:

• British Gas
• Deutsche Telekom
• Honeywell
• Liberty Global
• Orange
• QIVICON, Deutsche Telecom
• Sky Deutschland
• Sutherland Global
• Telecom Italia
• Telefónica
• TiVo

Speaker submissions are being accepted. CONNECTIONS™ Europe topics include:

• Defining the Connected Home: Entertainment & Smart Home & Health
• Innovative Partnerships: Opening New Opportunities in the Connected Home
• IoT: Transforming Innovations into Consumer Value Propositions
• Unlocking the Value of Personalization: Big Data vs. Privacy
• Young Consumers and New Disruptions to the Video Industry
• Standards and Interoperability: Creating Competition through Cooperation
• Wearables and Connected Health Opportunities
• The Future of the Connected Home
• OTT and Pay TV Bundles - Defining Future Video Services
• The Next Market Opportunities on the TV Landscape: 4K & OTT
• Evolution of Content Access: Cloud-based CE and Video Services
• Integrating IoT into Smart Home Platforms
• Next-Gen Consumer Support: Connected Devices and IoT
• Integrating OTT Content with Service Provider Platforms

For information on CONNECTIONS™ Europe, visit http://www.connectionseurope.com or contact sales@parksassociates.com, 972-490-1113. To schedule a meeting with an analyst, contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com, 720.987.6614.

About CONNECTIONS™ Europe
CONNECTIONS™ Europe is the leading annual executive conference on the connected home and IoT ecosystems. The two-day event features consumer research and high-level analysis on connected devices and services, new and innovative business strategies and partnerships, and critical challenges in driving consumer adoption of entertainment, smart home, and IoT solutions.