17.5% of New York City residents have HDTVs, Nielsen reports. Los Angeles is second with 17.1%, Washington, D.C. is #3 with 16.8%, with US on average having 13.7% penetration.

Wireless Association announced that wireless data service revenues for the first half of 2007 rose to $10.5 bln. This represents a 63% increase over the first half of 2006, when data revenues were $6.5 bln. Wireless data revenues now amount to 15.5% of all wireless service revenues, and represent money that consumers spend on non-voice services.

ABI Research estimates that the global mobile devices vendors shipped 288 mln units in Q3 2007, a remarkable increase of 10.5% QTQ and 15.7% YTY.

US market for smart textiles was worth an estimated $70.9 mln in 2006. This figure is expected to reach $78.6 mln in 2007 and $391.7 mln in 2012, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.9% over the next 5 years. Consumer products accounted for the bulk (98%) of US smart textiles sales in 2006. Worth $69.5 mln in 2006, the segment is expected to reach $76 mln in 2007 and $193.3 mln by 2012, a CAGR of 20.5%. Biomedical applications alone, worth an estimated $300,000 in 2007 are expected to reach $79 mln by 2012, a CAGR of 204.9%. Computing applications, worth an estimated $2.3 mln in 2007 will reach $47.9 mln by 2012, a CAGR of 83.5% over the 5-year period, BCC Research says.

Total network-enabled consumer electronics and media devices shipments are expected to grow from 92 mln in 2007 to nearly 460 mln by 2012, exceeding the 368 mln network-enabled home gateways, routers, network adapters and home network storage products shipped the same year. Total home networks in Asia-Pac will grow from 29 mln in 2007 to 85 mln by 2012, with China accounting for nearly half of these, ABI Research says.

Global microchip sales rose 5.9% in September 2007, the Semiconductor Industry Association said. Microchip sales in September 2007 were $22.6 bln, compared with $21.3 bln in 2006. Q3 2007 sales rose about 6% to $67.8 bln from $64.0 bln in Q3 2006.

53% of US small businesses are concerned about competition from large retailers; yet they’re still optimistic, with 63% of them anticipating strong sales this holiday season. 86% of small businesses will use email marketing to promote their holiday season offerings and 38% of them will use other online methods including banner ads and paid search, to generate attention. Surveyed businesses noted that email marketing has the greatest impact on driving holiday sales (35%). 42% of respondents will begin their marketing earlier than they did in 2006, with as many as 63% of them beginning their promotions before Halloween. While most small businesses surveyed anticipate a lucrative holiday season and have an overall positive outlook (54%) on the US economy, most of them have no plans to increase staff during or after the holidays. In fact, 81% plan to keep the same level of staff through the holidays while more than 60% plan to maintain their current staffing levels in 2008, Constant Contact reports.

33% of European online advertisers plan to launch their own profiles on social networking sites in the in 2008. However, just 24% of advertisers using such “engagement” tactics measure whether users interact with their online ads, JupiterResearch says.

The market for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) of animals, food, and farming will reach $9.4 bln by 2017, making it the largest market for RFID technology, VSurance claims.

Remote home health monitoring for a single group of diabetes patients cut costs for hospital care by 69% according to a Penn State University study. A Veterans Association study of remote monitoring of patients showed a 40% cut in emergency room visits. 30% of all hospital, out-patient and drug expenses could be saved from remote monitoring for the chronically ill, according to the Kaufman Foundation.

Web traffic to the Yahoo! parent company increased 3% YTY, from a three-month average monthly unique audience of 106.7 mln unique visitors in Q3 2006 to 110.4 mln unique visitors in Q3 2007. In online advertising, estimated revenue from image-based ads on Yahoo! grew 45% from Q3 2006 to Q3 2007. The number of sponsored links on the Yahoo! property grew 32% in the same time period. The sponsored search click-through rate for Yahoo! Search was 8.4% in August 2007, according to MegaView Custom Analysis. Yahoo! Search had 20% of all US search queries in August 2007.

ABI Research forecasts that by 2012 the market for ULP enabled PAN sensors in this area will represent nearly 140 million units.

PhoCusWright found that among travelers with access to the Internet, the share who usually book travel online dropped to 62% at the end of in 2006 from 68% in 2005, while those who say they usually arrange travel offline increased to 31% from 25% during the same period.

China’s trade surplus in 2007 should reach $250 bln, Xinhua news agency reported. Data suggests a YTY rise in China’s trade surplus of 41%, following a rise of 74% in 2006, when the surplus reached $177.5 bln.

In North America, the percentage of flash-based video PMPs will rise from 15% in 2006 to 77% in 2011. Elsewhere, flash-based video PMPs already account for the majority of the market and will continue to expand their lead.

The worldwide market for array processing equipment for TFT-LCDs will increase 20% in 2008 after dropping 50% in 2007, The Information Network reports. The supply glut experienced in 2006 and 2007 will abate in Q2 2008 and the equipment industry will recover for the entire year, growing 20% and another 9% in 2009.

US online holiday retail sales will grow to over $39 bln in 2007, an increase of 20% over in 2006’s holiday season. According to JupiterResearch, a record 126 mln users, a 6% increase over in 2006, will buy online this holiday season.

Flat panel display (FPD) revenues increased 15% QTQ and 16% YTY to 24.2 bln in Q2 2007. TFT LCD technologies generated 90.1% of this revenue with sales rising 18% QTQ and 24% YTY to $21.8 bln. PDP technology generated 4.8% of FPD sales, but PDP revenue fell 14% QTQ and 36% YTY to $1.2 bln for the quarter. OLED technologies generated 0.5% of FPD sales with revenue growth of 13% YTY to $0.1 bln. For 2007, DisplaySearch expects OLED revenues will exceed $0.7 bln. For 2008, DisplaySearch predicts OLED sales could more than double to $1.7 bln.