Twice

Parks Associates revealed today that 59 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service such as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu.

The firm's OTT Video Market Tracker service notes that only 6 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribe to any other OTT service without also having a subscription to one of the top three services, while 3 percent subscribe to one or more sports OTT video service, including MLB.TV, NFL Game Pass, NBA League Pa ...read more

Welcoming attendees to its 21st annual Connections: The Premier Connected Home Conference, which begins today in San Francisco, Parks is forecasting U.S. consumers will buy more than 2.3 billion connected devices between 2015 and 2020, and those consumers "are showing strong preferences for voice as the interface for their devices. Companies in the smart-home, entertainment and connected-car ecosystems are pursuing partnerships that can add voice control to a variety of solution ...read more

A trio of new reports confirms what we kinda already know: that voice control is the happening new user interface, and that smart wireless speakers from Amazon are the dominant domicile for virtual digital assistants.

According to new numbers from market research consultancy Parks Associates, the category, led by Amazon’s Echo, Dot and Tap, has already penetrated upward of 11 percent of U.S. broadband households, while projections call for annual sales in excess of 50 millio ...read more

Finally, another contributing factor to the in-home renaissance is the growth of smart-home adoption. According to Parks Associates, 19 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a smart major appliance in the next 12 months.

On that front, as the appliance industry continues its push into smart home, vendors are increasingly looking to the voice-control ecosystems of Amazon and Google to help extend their beachheads. High-end brands such as Jenn-Air are linking contro ...read more

At this pace, the total 360/VR camera category will be a “niche within a niche” of the larger action camera market, Gill predicted. Greater adoption is currently inhibited by the cost and hassle of purchasing additional hardware such as memory and storage, Gill said, plus the accessories and software needed to view and edit spherical content.

Consumer familiarity with virtual reality in general is also fairly low. In a recent survey, the research firm Parks Associates found ...read more

According to Parks Associates, nearly 20% of U.S. broadband households own a smart home device (smart thermostats, networked cameras, smart video doorbells, smart door locks, smart lighting devices, or smart home central controllers) and by 2025, 66% of U.S. broadband households will have a smart home product.

“Ownership of smart home devices continues to increase, with some products passing 10% penetration in broadband households,” said Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associ ...read more

Amazon says its Fire TV is now the top-selling streaming media player in the U.S. across all retailers, and that its Fire Stick dongle sibling is the most reviewed product ever on Amazon, with over 136,000 customer reviews.

However, a Parks Associates survey from May pointed to Roku’s set-top and Sticks players as the nation’s No. 1 streaming media players, having been purchased by 30 percent of U.S. broadband households last year. Amazon Fire TV tied with Google Chromecast ...read more

“Building brand mindshare early is critical so that consumers associate your brand with a category of products,” said Barbara Kraus, director of research, Parks Associates. “Consumers generally begin the purchase process with preconceived notions that have an enormous impact on the final purchase decision. CE manufacturers need to establish their brand early with an emerging product category so that consumers equate a product with that brand when they plan to make a purchase.”