Yahoo! Finance & News

The market for wearable technology devices is still in its infancy but consumers are already favoring health and fitness applications.

New Parks Associates research published Tuesday shows that just 9% of US broadband households intend to invest in a smartwatch in 2015 and that 40% of shoppers have set a price limit of $100-$250.

This is "roughly equivalent to a high-end fitness tracker," said Harry Wang, director, Health and Mobile Research, Parks Associates. "We are in ...read more

While 1 in 5 broadband-connected U.S. households pay for some kind of professionally-monitored home security systems, fewer than 1 in 12 have installed so-called smart home gear, according to a survey by Parks Associates that was cited in the Alarm.com filing. The smart home security and automation market is projected to grow 21% annually, hitting $15 billion worldwide in 2018, according to Juniper Research.

Of course, not all rosy projections come true. Smart home technolog ...read more

Huawei’s watch, which was developed by Ben Norton, a watch designer who has worked for Fossil and Armani, has a striking circular design and traditional-looking faces and drew considerable attention among Android-compatible devices. Unlike a round-faced watch Motorola unveiled last year, which had a rectangular blank spot at the bottom, Huawei’s design offers a truly circular display all the way around.

“It didn’t feel like a techy gadget on your wrist,” says Tejas Mehta, an ...read more

The biggest question for Vessel, though, is how many of the people who like to watch short videos are the kind of people who will pay $3 a month for early access. "The real challenge for Vessel will be to develop a following of consumers that find it valuable to return to the service day after day or week after week,” says Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates, which surveys online viewers regularly. "They have to have enough new content to keep folks coming ...read more

Google Pulls Ahead of Apple in TV Streaming: According to a report from research firm Parks Associates, Google’s Chromecast now accounts for 20% of sales from set-top-box/streaming sticks. Roku remains in the lead with a 29% share, but Apple has been pushed to third place with a 17% share. Amazon’s Fire TV is at number four with 10%. Chromecast is the cheapest device at $35, Roku has two devices at $50 and $99, while both Apple TV and Fire TV come for $90.

The price differen ...read more

Roku and Apple dominated the TV streaming market last year, but now Google’s Chromecast has pulled ahead of Apple to become a front-runner.

Research firm Parks Associates just released some new data on the most dominant brands when it comes to set-top boxes and streaming sticks (via 9to5Google).

Roku is still in the lead since it made up 29% of streaming set-top box sales in the first three quarters of 2014, but Google’s Chromecast came in second with 20% of the market.

Streaming media devices have become more common, and the choices are growing. This year, Roku is still the leading brand, but Google (GOOGL) Chromecast has taken Apple (AAPL) TV's place as runner-up, according to a survey by research firm Parks Associates.

Parks reported that Roku accounted for about half of streaming media players and that Apple had 26 percent market share last year but that the launches of Google Chromecast and Amazon (AMZN) Fire TV had changed the score. ...read more

In the first nine months of 2014 alone, 10% of American households with a broadband connection snapped up a set-top box or a media streaming stick -- that's equal to total sales of the devices in 2013.

The days of linear television viewing -- where consumers accept what broadcasters have scheduled and when -- are quickly drawing to a close. "Nearly 50% of video content that U.S. consumers watch on a TV set is non-linear, up from 38% in 2010, and it is already the majority fo ...read more