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Parks Associates in May estimated that over 10% of the 65+ population will own a PERS -- for Personal Emergency Response System -- device by 2021, and that figure will jump to 15% for seniors 75 and over. By that year, more than 56 million Americans will be 65 and over.

That’s good growth, but still leaves a lot of elderly people who won’t be using wearables. Jennifer Kent, director of research quality and product development at Parks, earlier told Marketing Daily that the “ ...read more

Ownership of streaming media players has nearly doubled from 21% of U.S. broadband households in 2014 to nearly 40% now. Meanwhile, smart TV ownership has increased from 34% to 53% during the same period.

"More connected devices open more opportunities for streaming and OTT services in the home, prompting more service announcements such as AT&T's plans to offer a tiered video streaming service," stated Elizabeth Parks, senior vice president of Parks Associates.

From the ...read more

The leading feature when purchasing a smartwatch is long battery life, followed by whether it is simple to operate, according to Parks Associates. The most important features after this are water resistance, activity tracking capabilities, GPS, and last, a heart rate monitor.

From the article "Long Battery Life Now Top Feature For Smartwatch Buyers" by Chuck Martin.

Other recent studies suggest the number may be even higher. Parks Associates estimates that 28% of households already have a smart speaker and IDC says the Amazon Echo and Google Home devices will account for 100 million units shipped this year. That’s a lot of voice capability.

From the article "Voice Shopping Starting To Catch On" by Chuck Martin.

Digital voice assistants continue to lead the race to the conversions of smart homes.

The penetration of U.S. broadband households with smart speakers will reach 47% by 2022, according to a new study.

More than a fourth (28%) of households already own a smart speaker with a voice assistant, according to the study by Parks Associates.

From the article "Smart Speakers Moving Toward 50% Market Penetration" by Chuck Martin.

"Esports is currently a niche market, but it has the ability to engage often hard-to-reach demographics," says Hunter Sappington, a Parks research analyst, in comments accompanying the latest report.

"Esports is a young, dynamic, and fast-growing industry. While viewership of many traditional sports is waning, esports is well positioned to capture the attention of a generation that grew up playing video games.” 

From the article "Esports Niche Getting Bigger; 62% Play At ...read more

This matters, since about a third (32%) of U.S. broadband households already own at least one connected device and a whopping 50% of households intend to purchase one in the next year, according to the research from Parks Associates.

While three-quarters (75%) of consumers planning to buy a smart device say it better work with other products they already have, fewer than 60% of the shoppers consider it important that their next purchase be the same brand as their current pro ...read more

Marketers do see an uptick. Parks Associates estimates that over 10% of the 65+ population will own a PERS system by 2021, and that figure will jump to 15% for seniors 75 and over. By that year, more than 56 million Americans will be 65 and over and nearly 7 million will be older than 84.

From the article "Sales Of Emergency Devices For Elderly Grow, But 'Can't Get Up' Too Much" by P.J. Bednarski.