SF Gate

Because the Watch tracks more than just fitness data, it will slowly exert a "cannibalization effect" on existing fitness-device makers like Garmin and Fitbit, said analyst Harry Wang of Parks Associates.

"It will eat into the demand for single function fitness bands," said Wang, Parks Associates director of health and mobile product research. "It will start to happen when Apple ships its product next year."

Parks Associates has projected worldwide sales of digital healt ...read more

If Tablet TV can prove that the technology is reliable, easy to use and cheaper than subscription TV, it could lead to "a little bit of a renaissance in over-the-air television," said analyst Brett Sappington of the Dallas research firm Parks Associates.

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The explosion in tablet use is part of the shift. Parks Associates said about 61 percent of all U.S. homes with high-speed Internet own at least one tablet, and found that the weekly video viewing time on tablets has ...read more

A new report says usage of the Google Chromecast is declining even while adoption of other streaming media players is up.

That could be a disturbing trend for Google, which made a big splash last summer when it introduced the $35 streaming media dongle.

Parks Associates said six percent of U.S. households that have broadband Internet service owned a Chromecast during the first quarter. The overall market for streaming media players, including rivals Roku and Apple TV, ha ...read more

Brett Sappington, director of research at Parks Associates, said Amazon's distribution network gives it a reach rivaled only by Apple and Google.

"The other thing Amazon has going for it, is that everyone else seems to have started with a box and is trying to create a successful service," Sappington said. "Amazon already has a successful service, Amazon Prime Video; they've already found a measure of success in the content space. This lets them build on that."

From the a ...read more

The new stick, which resembles a computer flash drive, should help Roku stay ahead of competitors, especially if rumors of an upcoming streaming media device from Amazon prove accurate, said Brett Sappington, research director for the research firm Parks Associates.

"The thought of Amazon getting into the market is pretty scary," Sappington said.

The Streaming Stick locks plugs into ports on the back or the sides of an HDTV monitor, making it less noticeable compared wit ...read more

The winnowing raises the stakes in the rivalry between iPad maker Apple; Samsung, which produces the Galaxy line of devices; and Amazon.com, with its Kindle Fire tablets. Polls by research firm Parks Associates show that iPads are the most sought-after gadget gift for the second straight holiday season, compared with televisions and laptops in previous years.

In total, tablet shipments are on pace to rise more than 54 percent this year to 221.3 million units, from virtually ...read more

Roku released new versions of its streaming devices this week, making minor improvements to its cheaper models and announcing a new deal with M-Go, a service that allows people to buy or rent video content. Customers will now be able to buy M-Go offerings through their Roku accounts by pressing a special M-Go button on their Roku remotes.

But life is hard for a small stand-alone hardware company, and Roku will be facing some pretty stiff challenges ahead. Building an appeali ...read more

The Roku streaming box is the most popular device in its category in the U.S., even more so than the Apple TV, according to a new study from research firm Parks Associates.

The study says 37% of households that have a streaming media player use a Roku as their primary device and 24% use an Apple TV. The rest is a mix of other devices like Boxee and Smart TVs with streaming apps like Netflix built in.

From the article, "The Roku Is More Popular Than Apple TV In The U.S." ...read more