CNET News

Brett Sappington, a director of research at Parks Associates, said the best video service imaginable is one that allows consumers to get to the content they want to watch as quickly as possible.

"Ultimately if operators were to integrate Netflix into their interface, one, it makes it easier to find that content. Two, it also allows consumers to access it within the interface, and if the operator can get the consumer to stay within that interface, they can better control and ...read more

Roku has a leg up over Apple TV with users of set-top boxes, says a report out Wednesday.

In a survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households with streaming media devices, Parks Associates found that 37 percent primarly use a Roku, while 24 percent use an Apple TV. Further, Roku is the most used streaming set-top box in the U.S., the poll found.

Whichever device is the most popular, streaming-media boxes continue to expand their reach. The percentage of broadband households ...read more

The shift in attitude underscores a broader change in the viewing habits of not just the young and tech-savvy but mainstream America as well. The rising cost of cable and the abundance of online video options (and gadgets that can ferry online programs to your television) have more people questioning why they pay for cable TV.

"It's very much more about economics than technology, and more about economics than content," said John Barrett, director of consumser analytics at Pa ...read more

The dulcet tones of Apple's Siri and Google Now are getting high marks from most users, but Siri's enticing them to more tasks more often, according to a survey by market research firm Parks Associates.

Adoption rates for voice control are up from last year, climbing to about a fifth of broadband users, and both Apple's Siri technology and Google Now are commonly used for many functions.

From the article, "Siri speaks louder than Google to most voice-control users" by Jo ...read more

A full two-thirds are unwilling to shell out more than $50 a month for a mobile data plan, according to the new report from Parks Associates. Further, a lot of people are in the dark as to just how much data they gobble up.

Half of current smartphone users questioned said they have no idea how much data they use each month.

These findings tell analysts at Parks that carriers face risks as they try to force more subscribers from unlimited plans to tiered, or usage-based, plans ...read more

According to a new study, most people who have access to Apple's Siri voice assistant think she's just fine -- they just don't want her around all that much.

As part of its quarterly "Market Focus" report, Parks Associates today said that in a polling of 482 iPhone 4S owners in the U.S., more than 50 percent of respondents said they were "very satisfied" with Siri. About a fifth of the group said that they were simply "satisfied," and some 9 percent said they were "unsatisfi ...read more

Last month, market intelligence firm Parks Associates released a study with shattering news: women buy more tech than men — and then use it more. According to the study, more women were interested in tablets, laptops and smartphones; women bought more gadgets on average; and, once the devices were in hand, more women were using them to watch movies, listen to music, interact online and play social games.

From the article, "Beyond the pink veneer" by Michelle Starr

Last week, research firm Parks Associates revealed results of a survey it conducted that found that 51 percent of U.S. consumers prefer the Kindle Fire to the iPad 2. However, in the same study, the company found that 62 percent of respondents who were "most likely to purchase a tablet by the end of the year" were planning to buy an iPad 2, compared to just 38 percent of consumers who said they would buy the Kindle Fire.

From the article, "Kindle family soars on Black Friday ...read more