SF Gate

Marketing consultants Parks Associates predict that account sharing will amount to $12.5 billion dollars in losses for pay-TV companies in 2024, up from $9.1 billion in 2019.

From the article "Report: 40% of subscribers to services like Netflix and Spotify share account passwords" by Dan Gentile.

The Parks Associates — a market research and consulting company — released an updated version of its top 10 subscription over-the-top (OTT) video services in the U.S. market Wednesday morning.

And while the top players like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu remain in the same position as last year, smaller players like YouTube Premium, which came in 7th place in 2017, have completely fallen off the list.

From the article "YouTube Premium No Longer Among Top 10 Streaming Services ...read more

The firm has built a reputation for inexpensive, simple television accessories and leads Amazon's Fire TV, Google's Chromecast and the Apple TV in the U.S. market, according to research company Parks Associates - even though it tends to get overshadowed by those bigger names. Roku said in May that one-quarter of all smart televisions purchased in the U.S. have Roku software built-in, thanks to partnerships with brands including TCL, Insignia and HiSense.

From the article "Ro ...read more

Tom Kerber, a director overseeing Internet-of-things strategy for Parks Associates, said sales for video doorbells have grown dramatically in recent years because of the popularity of online shopping.

The last item that Nest announced was a security system made up of three products called Nest Guard, Nest Tag and Nest Detect that will start at $499 and become available in November.

Nest Guard is a portable motion sensor that goes into a main room or hallway and arms or d ...read more

Tom Kerber of the research and consulting firm Parks Associates said the cheaper thermostat could persuade more shoppers to try Nest. Just 11 percent of American households with broadband Internet have smart thermostats, and only 18 percent of households were willing to pay for a $250 thermostat, according to a Parks Associates survey last year.

The lower-priced E is “going to essentially double the market for those products,” Kerber said. “That would be a significant driver ...read more

Tom Kerber of the research and consulting firm Parks Associates said the cheaper thermostat could persuade more shoppers to try Nest. Just 11 percent of American households with broadband Internet have smart thermostats, and only 18 percent of households were willing to pay for a $250 thermostat, according to a Parks Associates survey last year.

The lower-priced E is “going to essentially double the market for those products,” Kerber said. “That would be a significant driver ...read more

The small, candle-shaped speaker equipped with the artificial-intelligence personal helper Google Assistant, has sold about 300,000 units since hitting the market in October, according to research and consulting firm Parks Associates. But it remains a distant second to Amazon’s Echo which sold 14 million units in 2016 and expected to do better this year.

“They’re out for domination and being the biggest and best,” Parks Associates analyst Brad Russell said. “People are famil ...read more

The smartwatch market has also slumped. Apple Watch sales are down this year, and Lenovo’s Motorola brand has dropped out of the market. Most people simply aren’t finding reasons to buy them: Smartwatches are expensive, and they generally don’t provide functions other than those already available in a cell phone.

The market slowdown particularly hurt Pebble, which did not have the resources to wait for things to pick up. That might not happen until 2019 or 2020, when other f ...read more