"smartphone" articles

The traditional watch market faces two forms of competition from the CE space. First, the ubiquity of smartphones decreases the need for a separate timepiece. Second, the smart watch category challenges the traditional watch segment directly. Shipments of Swiss-made watches fell by over 14% from July 2015 to July 2016, and traditional watch sales declined across all price categories. Recent Parks Associates research assessed the impact of smart watches on the traditional watch...

Parks Associates is supporting the Saudi Smart Cities Conference, which will take place May 16-18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The event will explore how to create successful collaboration between public and private sectors, the monetization opportunities that will help boost infrastructure, increase investment, make cities sustainable and improve quality of life for all. With the economic diversification plans in place, key government authorities are focused on providing the best...

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...

Today’s launch of Amazon’s standalone streaming music service , Amazon Music Unlimited, will definitely have an impact for the streaming music industry. Amazon announced a standard $9.99 per month price, but a $2 discount for Amazon Prime members and a $3.99 per month rate for Amazon Echo owners. The Amazon Echo offering does not include the ability to listen on alternative devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. Parks Associates research indicates a...

For the past few years, the start of September means a new announcement from tech giant Apple, and this year is no different. Today, we anticipate Apple will announce its newest iPhone model, the iPhone 7, as well as a new version of the popular Apple Watch. Apple remains the dominant smartphone manufacturer in the U.S According to Parks Associates’ 360 View: Mobility & the App Economy , Apple’s iPhone accounted for 47% of the U.S. smartphone market in 2015, an 11%...

On July 5th, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued its opinion on whether password sharing violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). I read the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit opinion on password sharing , and I suggest you do as well. Judge McKeown and Judge Reinhardt make compelling and insightful comments. For those of you who don’t have the time or energy to read it yourselves, I’ve summarized the major points: The case which...

According to Parks Associates’ consumer data, about 9% of Apple smartphone users have used Apple Pay, 1  and only about 3% use it regularly. 2 2015 was “the year of Apple Pay” according to Tim Cook. Apple’s failing to gain adoption, right? 3 No. Apple is focused on gaining merchant adoption before gaining consumer adoption. Here’s evidence that Apple’s focus for Apple Pay is not on consumer uptake: Apple’s iPhone 6, the first Apple phone that allows consumers...

I've been doing a lot of research into Wi-Fi based phone plans recently. They're a service that some 70% of broadband households are interested in - which is not a surprise, given that most consumers use less than half of their cellular data plan. These plans make use of a collection of private and public WiFi hotspots in order to provide voice, text and data services. Some plans supplement hotspot access by pay-as-you-go cellular data. Current plans are offered by service providers...