Parks Report Sees ‘Huge Addressable Market’ for Cloud-Based Storage in 2015

More than six of 10 U.S. broadband homes never back up their data to an online storage service, despite the many options available, Parks Associates said Thursday in a report. The finding suggests there’s “a huge addressable market for cloud-based storage in 2015, as consumer consumption of digital content is on the rise,” Parks said. In U.S. broadband homes, smartphone users alone spend 18 minutes on average per session when streaming music apps, it said. That exceeds the time they spend on average on gaming, social media or video apps, it said. “As the connected consumer achieves greater mobility, device storage becomes a limiting factor for consumer content, prompting a shift to cloud-enabled storage and access," the firm said. Starting at CES and throughout 2015, the firm expects to see CE makers and online technology companies “leverage cloud-based storage as a value-added feature,” it said. “CE companies and cloud-based storage providers are struggling to differentiate in the market, prompting device and service providers like Amazon, with its Fire Phone, and Kodak, with its upcoming Android devices, to rely on cloud-enabled storage and functionality to attract new customers." Wearables in particular stand ready “to form a large chunk of the personal cloud in the new year as consumers store their health and fitness data in the cloud,” Parks said.