Forbes

The ability to understand and process language has improved so much that Xuedong Huang, the chief speech scientist at Microsoft, said his company’s system has reached parity with human transcriptionists.

Voice systems have become more accurate because the artificial intelligence behind them has improved, said Brett Sappington, senior research director at Parks Associates, a Dallas research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology.

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Pew has also reported that 68% of smartphone owners use their phone to follow along with breaking news events at least occasionally, 67% use their phone for turn-by-turn navigation while driving, and 57% do online banking with them. Parks Associates data shows 68% of U.S.-based smartphone owners listening to music via streaming outlets on a daily basis and 71% watch short video clips. And according to personal media startup Magisto, the average smartphone user takes 150 new phot ...read more

WWE engages its fan base in multiple media with engaging content. According to Stephanie McMahon, chief brand officer, “We have five hours of live content on USA Network every single week, 52 weeks a year. No off-season, no re-runs. It's an opportunity to keep our fans engaged and never let them off the hook because our storylines continue all year long. And we now have almost two million subscribers on the WWE Network. It is the fifth largest OTT service in the United States an ...read more

The number one concern about Apple is how future versions of the iPhone will sell. Will the company be able to add enough features and functionality that current owners will want to upgrade? Will Android users switch? Will feature phone users buy Apple vs. Android? A longer term concern is will another company introduce something that changes the landscape like Apple did to Blackberry that instead of a slow erosion that sales fall quickly. Parks Associates’ recent study of consu ...read more

Indeed, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and even Taco Bell have all associated significant sales boosts with their mobile payment apps. Now major retailers outside of food service are testing the technology – CVS Pay recently launched in select markets. In fact, more than 25% of smartphone users rely on a payment app at least once a month, according to recent research from Parks Associates. And while Apple Pay may come quickly to mind, the report states that consumers use retailer-spe ...read more

This suggests that Apple is actually doing nicely when it comes to its share of just the external set-top box streaming media player market; indeed, Parks Associates reveals that Apple TV is pretty much matching market leader Roku when it comes to external box sales. Which kind of makes me wonder – not for the first time – why Apple is yet to offer a streaming stick solution. Unless it just doesn’t want to dirty its hands with the relatively low end of the streaming media player ...read more

Parks Associates research shows that 23% of U.S. smartphone owners also own a smart home device and over three-fourths of those consumers use their smartphone, tablet, or PC to control their smart home devices at least once per month.

From the article "Apple Investor Weekly: iPhone 7 Concerns Hit Stock, Investing $1 Billion In A Chinese Company" by Chuck Jones.

The research in the report was done by Parks Associates, a “market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services,” according to its public statement. Interestingly, the company broke down some of the data by cell carrier, and found that those using iPhones consume much more media on their devices than other operating systems, though T-Mobile and Sprint subscribers are more interested in music specifically.

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