San Francisco Chronicle

Brad Russell, a senior analyst with the research firm Parks Associates, said only about 7 percent of U.S. homes with broadband Internet service have installed Internet-connected door locks. Devices like connected thermostats and security cameras are more popular.

However, smart locks have become more popular in the past two years because professional home security services like ADT, Comcast Xfinity Home and Vivint are increasingly offering products like August locks, Ru ...read more

“Getting consumers to interact with Apple in a whole bunch of different ways helps develop that positive relationship early,” said Jennifer Kent, a director of research at Parks Associates, a Dallas research and consulting firm.

Already, Apple has a strong following among younger consumers. Last year, 39 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. purchased an Apple product, compared with the 23 percent who bought a Samsung device, according to Parks Associates. Samsung is th ...read more

“Our computer vision systems are now even better than humans,” Pichai told a crowd of 7,000 people at the Shoreline Amphitheatre during his keynote speech Wednesday morning at Google I/O, the company’s developers conference. “We are beginning to understand images and videos ... and give you the right information in a meaningful way.”

Artificial intelligence “is getting into deep learning stage, and Google is clearly a leader in this area,” saod Parks Associates mobile analys ...read more

Smart-home devices could be starting to take off. Parks Associates said last month that about 26 percent of U.S. homes that have high-speed Internet connection also had a smart-home device in 2016, compared with 19 percent the year before. It forecast that half of those homes would have at least one connected device by 2020.

From the article "Target bets on connected devices with own-branded smart lamp" by Benny Evangelista.

The market for fitness trackers seems saturated; Fitbit announced plans this week to lay off off 6 percent of its workforce. But Harry Wang, senior director of Research at Parks Associates, said newcomers like the RunIQ could still succeed.

From the article "Intel, New Balance Team Up For Smartwatch" by Benny Evangelista.

While some trials rely on existing wearables, other trials are testing prototypes that could help people better manage their health, such as monitoring pain or helping patients comply with their medication regimens, said Harry Wang, senior director of research at the Dallas market research and consulting firm Parks Associates.

Wang said there’s still debate over how valuable the data from Fitbits and other consumer monitoring devices will be. “This is in the very early stage ...read more

Bendability would be a new trait in smartphones — improvements in recent years have focused on larger screens, better cameras and speakers. Such devices could bring a spark to the nearly $432 billion worldwide smartphone market, which has seen growth slow as more people buy them and have fewer reasons to upgrade, according to research firm IDC.

“Each of the manufacturers really have to push to find hardware or software features that actually provide a new experience that rea ...read more

In an August report, NPD Group estimates that roughly a third of smart TVs in the U.S. weren’t actually connected to the Internet. That’s down from about half two years earlier, but still not good. Researchers at Parks Associates found that even as more Americans are using smart TV functions, streaming device use has grown even faster.

“If you’re a streaming media box (maker), you’ve got much more ability to push new features out into the market at an affordable price,” said ...read more