E-commerce is booming! Broadband Internet access has finally become mass market in scale. Access by broadband methods, including DSL, cable modem and satellite, has reached critical mass. Tens of millions of American homes now have broadband access. Meanwhile, broadband access to the Internet has become standard at most businesses and offices. Cable modem and DSL are battling fiercely for market share.

On the wireless side, Wi-Fi is enjoying steady growth, with tens of thousands of public Wi-Fi hotspots now in operation across the U.S. Bluetooth has gained wide acceptance for wireless connection of networks to appliances such as printers. Meanwhile, WiMax, with its low cost and range of up to 30 miles, threatens to revolutionize wireless access to the Internet. Sprint Nextel, Motorola and Intel have recently announced massive investments in WiMax.

The booking of travel online is perhaps the most successful niche of all of the world's e-commerce efforts. Consumers use the Internet to become better informed and to seek bargains. Online sites like Expedia, Priceline and Orbitz steer millions of consumers toward specific airlines and hotels in a manner that lowers prices and improves satisfaction among consumers.

Meanwhile, retailers of many types are enjoying soaring sales via the Internet, and most national retail chains have carefully developed bricks and clicks strategies that integrate their online efforts with their stores and catalogs. At the same time, many online-only retailers are finding that their revenues are growing rapidly as more and more consumers begin to rely on the convenience of shopping online.

This carefully-researched data is a complete e-commerce and Internet market research and competitive intelligence tool-- everything you need to know about the business of online access, broadband, wireless and Wi-Fi, Internet retailing, online payment processing, technologies, web-based businesses and networks and more, including:

1. Market research, competitive intelligence and business analysis for all Internet and e-commerce business sectors
2. Analysis of major e-commerce, Internet and online access trends and developments
3. Wi-Fi, WiMax and other wireless access methods, including Bluetooth
4. Broadband Internet access analysis and trends, including access at home and at work via DSL and cable modem<
5. Retailing on the Internet, bricks and clicks strategies, including major online retailers such as Amazon.com
6. E-commerce trends in the travel business, including online booking, ticket sales and research—as well as profiles of leading online travel companies such as Expedia and Orbitz
7. Internet and e-commerce consultants
8. Networking equipment, IP software and hardware manufacturers, distributors and trends.
9. FTTP (Fiber to the premises) and FTTH (Fiber to the home) trends.
10. Web-based businesses, SAAS (Software as a Service) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers)
11. Internet based telephone (VOIP), voice over the Internet
12. Convergence of voice, video, data, entertainment over the Internet

Whether you purchase the printed almanac or buy a subscription to the online edition, you will find a complete overview, industry analysis and market research tool in one superb, value-priced package.

We provide you with our famous industry trends analysis, statistical tables, and a glossary, along with a database of industry contacts including associations and professional societies. And you receive our proprietary, in-depth profiles of hundreds of leading companies in all facets of this industry—public and private companies, U.S. and non-U.S. based.

Electronic Access to Company Profiles: Our online data enables you to search, filter and view selected companies, and then export contact data into text or Excel, including executive names with titles, plus the company addresses and phone numbers.

Migration from CD-ROM to Online Tools: 2010 and earlier editions of our printed almanacs (published before June 2010) come with a CD-ROM that contains a complete database of company profiles. For 2011 editions (published June 2010 and later), we have migrated to a special set of online tools provided to book buyers at no additional charge. Buyers of these newer editions receive a form enabling them to register for 1-year, 1-seat online access to special tools at Plunkett Research Online, including the ability to view the market research/industry trends section and industry statistics. In this manner, you have online access the very latest data posted to Plunkett Research Online for one year. With either the CD-ROM or the online tools, you will be able to access the company profiles to search, view and export company data and contacts.

Here’s how the experts have praised this book:

“…An outstanding, comprehensive analysis of e-commerce and Internet business, packed with charts, tables and … statistics… A welcome addition to the business literature as a source of essential, unique, well-respected, highly accessible reference material.”

CHOICE magazine

“The comparative nature of this resource is one of its strongest features, enabling users to make across-the-board and across-the-country comparisons of company expenditures, growth and other key statistical areas… Plunkett’s Almanac is a unique adjunct business reference source. Several times in the course of performing business reference service, this reviewer gave her copy to her patrons researching companies included in this book. All patrons were extremely pleased with (this) information…much of it being information which they had been unable to locate elsewhere… The reviewer recommends that the Almanac be placed on standing order, if possible, for all business reference collections that take pride in being patron-responsive. The… price is justified for the wealth of information provided in this first of its kind reference…”

Indiana University-Kelley School of Business, “BUSINESS HORIZONS”