"smartphones" articles

This week, Chinese CE device and entertainment company LeEco made impressive announcements about its U.S. market entry plans. Which market? All of them. LeEco makes phones, bikes, VR headsets, and even an electric car prototype. It acquired TV manufacturer Vizio in July, and makes its own TV sets as well. It is not dipping its toe into the U.S. market with a single device type but jumping in wholesale with an entire ecosystem of devices. Recent research from Parks Associates shows...

Everything Google announced today (10/4) at the Pixel hardware event is the first tech giants’ movement of October. Google CEO Sundar Pichai implied that the company desires to build an ecosystem around users. As proof, here are some of the “Google goodies” that will enhance personalization and customized experience for you: Pixel and Pixel XL : smartphones that come in Quite Black, Really Blue or Very Silver, with exceptional camera that is complimented with free Google...

Connected wearables are flourishing in almost every health and wellness category. According to Parks Associates, 33% of U.S. broadband households now own at least one connected health device—such as a digital fitness tracker, networked weight scale, connected treadmill, or blood pressure meter—an increase from just under 25% in 2014. With rising consumer interest and hot venture money, the wearables market for health and wellness has taken a significant stride forward....

With growing adoption of bigger screen smartphones and LTE-enabled tablets, American consumers are spending more time for entertainment on mobile platforms than ever. According to recent Parks Associates research , 68% of U.S. smartphone owners listen to streaming music daily, while 71% watch short video clips. Last week, Sprint announced a new partnership with Amazon , allowing current and future customers to add Amazon Prime and its services as an add-on to monthly plans. For an...

Last week, Facebook announced its foray into the world of digital personal assistants with “Moneypenny.” The name is apparently inspired by a character who plays secretary to James Bond’s boss in a number James Bond movies. Moneypenny will be integrated into Facebook’s Messenger app and is designed to help app users to research and order products online. Facebook has not yet unveiled the service and is currently testing it among members of its staff. While services...

Today, Parks Associates announced new smartphone and tablet research at Mobile World Congress that reveals that app users regularly use nearly eight apps on their smartphone and nearly seven apps on their tablet. The average user spends 3.3 hours per week using social networking apps on a smartphone, while gaming and music apps score 2.7 and 2.6 hours per week, respectively. Commenting on the data, Parks Associates’ director of health and mobile product research, Harry Wang...

Facebook Messenger and Skype are the most popular messaging apps in the U.S., with 53% of messaging app users using Facebook Messenger and 45% using Skype, according to new research that Parks Associates released today . The research also shows: Smartphone penetration has exceed 75% of U.S. broadband households. Global OTT messaging volume will grow from 10 trillion messages in 2013 to nearly 67 trillion messages in 2018. Global text messaging volume...

In my last blog post , I commented on the AVG Technologies NV acquisition of San Francisco-based Location Labs . This week, I was given the opportunity to discuss the merger with Location Labs’ CEO, Tasso Roumeliotis, and Jason Finkelstein, the company’s vice president of marketing. We discussed the company’s history, the fit between the two companies, and the business of selling value-added services. Background and Company History Location Labs began as WaveMarket...