70 mln people have access to basic Personal Health Records. But when Aetna and the Financial Planning Association surveyed more than 2,100 adults 18 and older, 64% said they do not know or are unsure about what a PHR is. Among the group of Americans who are familiar with PHRs, 83% acknowledge that the online record personalizes their experience with their health care provider, but only 11% currently use one to keep track of their medical and health history.

According to The Diffusion Group, though 80% of game console households own a console capable of some form of DVD playback or online download, only 13% have used their game console for movie viewing purposes (some eight mln US households). Among this small segment, the vast majority (74%) use only DVD for movie viewing, while approximately one-fourth have also ventured online to purchase or rent a digital movie download.

Locally grown foods expected to jump from approximately $4 bln in 2002 to $5 bln in 2007, according to Packaged Facts. Packaged Facts estimates that locally grown foods could turn into a $7 bln business by 2011.

Growth in the lithography sector was reduced to 5.8%, as memory companies can’t justify spending $35 mln for a wet DUV tool when they are struggling with sharp price declines and excess capacity. The semiconductor market will also rebound from 1.9% growth in 2007 to 10.4% growth in 2008. Coupled with a stronger global economy and higher selling prices of memory chips, semiconductor manufactures will purchase additional equipment to the tune of 22% growth in 2008, The Information Network reports.

10% of developers in the Asia Pacific region are working on computer games, according to Evans Data. That’s three times more than in North America. In addition, nearly a quarter of developers are writing mobile applications, and of those, 25% spend more than half of their time on mobile apps. 74% of developers are thirty years old or less, and this proportion has increased in the in 2006, suggesting a strong influx of new developers in this age range. Only 3% are more than fifty years old, compared to 26% of the North American developer population.

Worldwide semiconductor capital spending grew 19% in 2006 but has weakened in 2007, with only about 1% growth expected. Spending will reach $56.6 bln in 2007, with Samsung, Intel and Hynix listed as the top three spenders, Gartner says.

Small businesses will spend $16.6 bln on wireline voice services in 2007, which will account for nearly 31% of the US business market for such services, Research and Markets says.

The worldwide FTTx market totaled $2,562 mln in 2006. Tellabs was the largest FTTx vendor, and attributed to 11% of the market share. Asia/Pacific accounted for 40% of the total market, followed by Japan and North America, Gartner reports.

11.7% of buyers paid cash for cars in the first half of in 2007, versus about 8% over the last few years, according to CNW Marketing Research.

74% of respondents to a Storewiz survey say they are interested in reducing the size of stored data and management time by one-third, with 71% interested in cutting their backup time by an equal margin. 82% of companies do not have the budget for storage expenditures in the current quarter. 39% of participants in the study are managing more than 10TB of data with 7% handling more than 100. Most respondents anticipate an 11 to 25% annual storage growth rate (48%) followed by those expecting a 1 to 10% increase (36%). 12% forecast between a 26 and 50% rate with 4% expecting more than 50% growth. 28% of those surveyed are seeing power consumption associated with their data storage rise by as much as 50%.

The etch and clean equipment markets had significant revenue growth in 2006. The dry etch segment outpaced the market, growing 40.4%, led by the silicon etch segment, which grew 44%. The clean segment grew 21%, and the auto wet station segment had the strongest growth, at 23%, Gartner said.

The total value of new (as opposed to renewed or restructured) outsourcing contracts to Asia-Pacific in the $25 mln plus bracket - where most significant outsourcing activity occurs - is $5.4B, an increase of 100% on the first half of 2006. Eight BPO contracts, in the $25 mln or greater category, with a total contract value of $700 mln were signed in Asia-Pacific in the first half of 2007, representing growth of 33% by volume and 133% by value compared to the first half of 2006, TPI says.

Gartner has updated its forecast for the IT services market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This market is expected to grow from 184 bln euros in 2006 to 245 bln euros in 2011. This reflects a compound annual growth rate of 5.9%, fractionally higher than the November 2006 forecast of 5.7%.

60% of workers surveyed by Salary.com admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour working day. Personal Internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting activity according to 34% of respondents, with 20.3% then listing socializing with co-workers and 17% conducting personal business as taking up time.

Connections to mobile services in Latin America passed the 300 mln mark in 2006. Mobile penetration will exceed 60% in 2007 and top 70% in 2011. Service revenue will register compound annual growth of 6.1% for the period 2007 to 2011, Gartner says.

Total factory-to-dealer sales of consumer electronics will surpass $160 bln in 2007 according to Consumer Electronics Association. CEA predicts accessories sales will reach almost nine bln dollars with over 317 mln accessories units shipped in 2007. The single largest contributor in terms of dollar sales continues to be display technologies. Forecasted to reach shipment totals of $26 bln for 2007, the display category (including flat screen digital televisions) continues to grow as consumers embrace digital technologies with over 30 mln digital televisions projected to ship by year’s end. CEA is projecting that over $20 bln will be spent on portable devices, an increase of 12% over 2006.

Production of personal computers will increase to 255.7 mln units in 2007, creating a semiconductor market worth $61.4 bln. Mobile PC production will exceed desktop PC production in 2011, Gartner said.

The network-attached storage market will reach more than $3.4 bln in 2011, up from $1.7 bln in 2006, with a compound annual growth rate of 15%. Growth will be driven by fast-growing unstructured file data and simpler products for small businesses, Gartner reports.