MACTECH

The Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group finds growing consumer interest in smart home automation solutions, with 26% of U.S. broadband households planning to purchase a smart thermostat during the 2013 holiday season.

"Roughly 25% of broadband households with new home management and home entertainment equipment report experiencing problems with these devices on a monthly basis, a surprisingly high amount," says Patrice Samuels, research analyst, Parks A ...read more

New research from Parks Associates finds tablets and game consoles are virtually tied among U.S. consumers for planned purchases in the 2013 holiday season.

Parks Associates' research reports purchase interest in game consoles has rebounded after tablets surged ahead in the 2012 holiday season. The research group's analysts say comparable percentages of U.S. broadband households purchased tablets and game consoles in 2011, and if current intentions reflect 2013 purchases, ga ...read more

A new Parks Associations study finds that over 25% of CE buyers in U.S. broadband households use mobile commerce apps on their smartphone to help with an in-store purchase decision, including functions such as product research, barcode scanning, and interaction with a retailer or brand app.

The research group's data reveals that 43% of U.S. smartphone users purchased a good via their device in the last month. However, consumers, especially shoppers at Walmart, Target, and Be ...read more

According to new data from Parks Associates, 48% of U.S. smartphone owners currently use apps heavily for daily information and entertainment, while 15% use the phone to order food and 12% use it to shop for physical goods.

"Consumers are still concerned about the security of mobile payments, but these issues are less of a barrier for younger consumers -- over 60% of users 18-24 have made a mobile purchase in the past 30 days," says Jennifer Kent, Parks Associates mobile ana ...read more

Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) estimates that mobile app revenues in the U.S. and Canada will reach nearly US$22 billion in 2017, fueled mainly by in-app purchases and in-app advertising revenues.

"Tablet owners show a greater tendency than smartphone users to make in-app purchases, with more than 20% having upgraded from a free to a paid version of an app," said Harry Wang, Health & Mobile Product Research, Parks Associates. "The mobile app market has entered a ...read more

New online research from Parks Associates reveals consumers want to be able to access online video as part of their pay-TV service.

More than one-half of U.S. broadband households would like to have a YouTube on-demand feature with their pay-TV services. The new research is based on multiple nationwide surveys of over 2,000 U.S. broadband households and examines the impact of carriage disputes, which have prompted pay-TV providers like DirecTV, Dish Network, and Time Warner ...read more

Connected devices score high rates of ad recall and response among users, with one-third of U.S. tablet owners and 40% of U.S. smartphone owners recalling an in-app ad shown on their device, according to Parks Associates.

"Over 50% of U.S. broadband households now own at least one Internet-enabled CE device, and tablet ownership grew by 146% in the first three quarters of 2012," says senior research analyst at the research group. "These devices offer a significant opportunit ...read more

"The sands are shifting for manufacturers and content Providers as expanding numbers of households access their TV-displayed content online," says Tricia Parks, CEO of Parks Associates. "Methods include smart TVs and a host of connected devices, several of which are in a high-growth trajectory. This shift will create havoc with today's well-understood TV revenue model potential. All players want a piece of that revenue, but not all players will hold their current positions over ...read more