Harris Interactive conducted a survey for Zone Labs to find that 94% of consumers agreed that the Internet presents a threat to children. 61% cited predators in chat rooms as the biggest threat. 16% said pornographic Web sites posed a danger. 8% believed phishing was the biggest threat to kids. 3% identified spyware as the biggest threat to kids, 4% said viruses were the worst danger. Only 50% had installed a software firewall, and only 23% had installed a full security suite to secure their personal computer against such Internet threats.

The market for business intelligence (BI) reporting and analysis solutions exceeded $5.5 bln in 2004, up from $5.3 bln in 2003. Reporting and analysis is essential to addressing compliance and measuring corporate performance, but standardizing on a single BI platform for all reporting needs is still a few years away, Forrester Research says.

EMEA financial service providers (FSPs) are expected to spend $46.2 bln on IT services 2005, Gartner claims. However, less than 30% of these firms will outsource any strategic projects by the end of 2006.

The volume of prints made from digital-still camera images increased by 68% for the year ending July 2005, Photo Marketing Association International. Online ordering activity grew at the rate of 197% in the 12 months ending July 2005. Printing volumes on retail minilabs grew by 146%, more than twice as fast the overall printing growth. Growth in home printing remains below the market average but positive. For the period of August 2004 through July 2005 the volume of prints made at home grew by 26%.

InfoTrends/CAP Ventures said nearly 20% of US households have a data home network, but less than 5% currently have a multimedia network such as one with a television or stereo connected to the network.

According to iSuppli, revenue from worldwide shipments of driver ICs for large-size LCDs will expand to $4.2 bln in 2009, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.6% from $2.3 bln in 2004. Unit shipments of LCD drivers will reach 4.2 bln units in 2009, expanding at a CAGR of 19.8% from 1.7 bln 2004. For 2005, iSuppli projects driver sales of $3.0 bln on 2.3 bln units.

Digital camera unit sales reached 22.5 mln units in Western Europe in 2004, and the market is expected to grow by 32% in 2005, reaching 29.8 mln units by year-end 2005, InfoTrends/CAP Ventures says. Although average selling prices for digital cameras declined in 2004, revenues increased by a staggering 42%. Revenues are expected to continue to increase by 29% in 2005 to total just over 10 bln euros. This makes Western Europe the largest digital camera market worldwide in terms of units sold and revenue. Household penetration of digital cameras remains quite low, reaching 26% in 2004. First time buyers dominated the market, representing 85% of all digital camera purchases. In 2005, the market will shift from the early adopter stage to an early majority market as household penetration of digital cameras reaches 39%. Although only a small proportion of the overall market, the digital SLR market was the fastest growing segment of the Western European market in 2004. The segment is expected to grow by 264% in 2005.

Canadians between 12-24 years of age are responsible for 78% of illegal music downloading, even though they make up only 21% of the population, Pollara survey says. 12-17 year olds are the most likely to strongly agree that “artists are too rich already so downloading won’t hurt them.” 37% of respondents used a CD burner to record music within the last six months, up from 18% in 2001.

The number of US residential VoIP customers increased by 750,000 in Q2 2005 to 2.44 mln, according to Bernstein Research.

September 2005 market share for Microsoft Internet Explorer, said WebSideStory, was 88.46%, just a slight decrease from the 88.86% in late April 2005. Firefox was at 7.86% in September 2005.

Outsourced IT services brought in $12 bln for India 2004, leading the world in IT exports.

Data services currently contribute about 7% of average monthly revenue per customer (ARPU) in the United States, according to Ovum.

MarketingVox points to a study by Ball State University Center for Media Design regarding media interaction. About 30% of the observed waking day was spent with media as the sole activity versus 20.8% for work activity, while an additional 39% of the day was spent with media while involved in some other activity. In any given hour no less than 30% of those studied were engaged in some way with television, and in some hours of the day that figure rose to 70%. While television is still by far the dominant medium in terms of the time average Americans spend daily with media at 240.9 minutes, the computer has emerged as the second most significant media device at about 120 minutes. About 30% of all media time is spent exposed to more than one medium at a time. People ages 18-24 spend less time online than any other age group except those older than 65. Levels of concurrent media exposure were higher among those 40-65 than people 18-39. Women spend more time multitasking with two or more types of media than men. Use of the Web, e-mail and phones is substantially higher on Fridays than any other day of the week.

The New York Times offers wealth of statistics on used book market and its relationship with the Internet. Book Industry Group says that used books accounted for $600 mln, or 3%, of the $21 bln that Americans spent on books in 2004. The market for used textbooks estimated at $1.6 bln, or more than 30% of the $5.3 bln spent by consumers on educational and professional books. Used-book purchases accounted for $2.2 bln, or 8%, of the $26.3 bln that American consumers spent in 2004 on books of all types. That total was up 11% from 2004.

The number of mobile subscribers worldwide was expected to rise 20% to 1.91 bln at the end of 2005 and cross the 2-bln-mark in 2006, driven by China and India, where mobile phones are only now reaching vast swathes of their 1 bln+ population. By 2010, Informa says, the Asia-Pacific region would contribute almost half of the mobile subscribers globally as subscribers rise to 1.3 bln from 843 mln 2005. Informa forecast 2.7 bln mobile subscribers worldwide by 2010. 46.5% of these subscribers will continue to be on 2G networks, followed by 29.6% on 2.5G networks and 23.8% on 3G networks.

Nielsen//NetRatings announced that the number of Americans with broadband access reached 42% of the US population in August 2005, increasing 16% since the beginning of 2005. In January 2005, 103.8 mln Americans had broadband access; by August, that figure had grown to 120.8 mln. In August 2005, the share of active US Internet users connecting online via broadband from home reached an all-time high, at 61.3%, compared with 51.4% of active Internet users in August 2004. In August 2005, there were 86.1 mln Internet users accessing the Web through high-speed connections, marking a 34% gain over 64.1 mln during August 2004.

Informa Telecoms & Media forecast strong growth continuing in the Asia-Pacific region, led by China, which accounted for 36% of all mobile handsets sold in the region in 2004. Informa forecast annual sales of mobile handsets rising 14% to 743 mln in 2005, but said the growth rate would slow to a compounded 3.83% over the next 5 years to reach 899 mln units in 2010.

JupiterResearch announced that consumer demand for paid wireless information services remains low. With just 20% of consumers willing to pay for 411 information and only 7% willing to pay for local search on their cell phones, local information providers will need to look to advertisers to monetize their local search offerings.