New Research Finds Strong Interest in Low-Cost Home Automation Solutions -- According to new research from The Diffusion Group, more than one-half of U.S. Internet households are to varying degrees interested in purchasing a home control system (HCS) to automate the control of home lighting, room temperature and security systems if the price of the solution is less than $200. Innovations in automation technology, combined with the diffusion of home networks, have helped to bring the cost of home control functionality down to a level where consumers are more likely to be interested in connecting and automating systems in their homes. TDG's research found that although consumer interest in HCS is greatest at prices below $200, higher price levels sustained significant interest. For example, approximately 30 percent of Internet heads-of-household are to varying degrees interested in purchasing a HCS if priced between $200 and $400, and 20 percent are to varying degrees if the price is more than $400.
The prevailing narrative around artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of relentless scale. Bigger models, bigger clusters, bigger budgets. The assumption, largely unchallenged until recently, was that raw parameter count translated directly into competitive advantage. New research from Omdia suggests it's time to retire that assumption. According to the latest market study by Omdia, parameter growth in frontier AI models has slowed to around 5 percent annually since 2021, a stark contrast to the more than hundredfold expansion seen between 2019 and 2021. Enterprise AI Market Development For executives who have been making infrastructure and investment decisions based on the assumption that AI would keep demanding ever-larger, ever-more-expensive hardware, this finding deserves serious attention. The race to the top of the model size leaderboard has, at least for now, plateaued. Crucially, Omdia's analysts are not reading this as an AI winter. Alexander Harrowell, senior pri...