Investor's Business Daily

Streaming video device pioneer Roku continues to lead the market, but rivals Amazon.com (AMZN), Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet (GOOGL)-owned Google are close behind.

Roku accounted for 30% of streaming media players purchased in 2015, down from 34% in 2014, research firm Parks Associates reported Tuesday. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company makes set-top boxes and streaming media sticks that plug into TVs. Increasingly Roku is getting its software installed in smart TVs, eliminat ...read more

Research firm Parks Associates said Friday that 14% of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a streaming media player by mid-2016 and that, as of the third quarter of 2015, 31% of U.S. broadband households own a streaming media player, up from 27% at the beginning of the year.
"Streaming media players will be a popular gift this holiday season, especially with more competitive pricing in the market and the expansion of new OTT services" Parks analyst Barbara Kraus said in a st ...read more

A report by Parks Associates says that among the 57% of U.S. households with OTT services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), HBO Go), 11% use shared-accounts. Parks estimates that OTT video streamers will lose some $500 million of revenue worldwide in 2015 because of password sharing.
 

From the article "Cord Cheating: Piracy Spreads From Netflix To Pay TV" by REINHARDT KRAUSE.

With no new streaming video player in two and a half years, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is losing ground in the market. Apple's set-top box, Apple TV, slipped to fourth place in U.S. sales of streaming media devices last year, research firm Parks Associates reported Thursday.

Roku continues to lead in streaming media device sales, accounting for 34% of units sold in 2014. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was second with 23%. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) overtook Apple for third place. Amazon grabb ...read more

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and other retailers this holiday season are pushing smart home devices closer to mass-market adoption, Parks Associates said in a report Thursday.

Multiple retailers have expanded their shelf space devoted to these devices, which include smart lighting, electronic door locks, programmable thermostats and next-generation smoke detectors. Best Buy has taken the lead, with some locations setting aside over 800 square feet of floor space to connected home pro ...read more

Last week, research firm Parks Associates said Roku is the leader in digital media streamers, accounting for 29% of sales in the first three months of 2014. It said Google Chromecast (20%) supplanted Apple TV (17%) in second place. New entrant Amazon Fire TV is in fourth place with 10% market share.

From the article "Average U.S. home has 2 streaming video devices" by Patrick Seitz.

Separately, research firm Parks Associates on Thursday said nearly 4% of U.S. households will have a smart home controller by year's end, rising to nearly 6% in 2015. Such devices can control lighting systems, garage door openers, networked security cameras and programmable thermostats.

"The majority of smart devices installed today were acquired as part of a security or home controls system deployed by providers such as ADT, Comcast or AT&T," Parks Associates analyst Tom Ke ...read more

A survey of U.S. consumers by Parks Associates found that 36% of likely game console buyers plan to purchase Sony's PS4, compared with 27% for Microsoft's Xbox One.

The next-generation game consoles will compete for consumer spending with new tablets from Apple, Amazon and others, Parks Associates said Tuesday. However, roughly 15% of all U.S. broadband Internet households plan to buy both a tablet and a game console this holiday season, the research firm said.

Parks Ass ...read more