Blog articles from 07/2017

Ever since the release of  Jaws  in June of 1975, summer has been the realm of the multiplex blockbuster. Tentpole action film franchises like  Star Wars, Batman, Spider-man, Jurassic Park,  and  Indiana Jones  often find themselves in theaters during the summer movie season from May through July. Summer generally brought a lull in television, the demands of weekly programming schedules relegated to low-cost or specialty programming while the cast and crews...

Crunchyroll is partnering with Twitch.tv to offer a 6-day Crunchyroll marathon on the gaming-focused live streaming platform. The marathon started today on July 27, and it will run back-to-back episodes of entire series 24 hours a day for nearly 20 different anime hits. The episodes are free to watch on Twitch.tv, containing ads unless viewers are Twitch Prime subscribers (either purchased separately or as an added benefit of being an Amazon Prime subscriber). Viewers...

Imagine a hot summer night in Phoenix, one of the hottest major cities in the United States. I’m visiting my grandmother’s home while on a break from college and sleeping on the pullout couch in her guest room. It’s 2 a.m., and I have awoken feeling quite warm and am unable to return to a peaceful slumber. That’s because my grandma has turned up the thermostat to 82 degrees. Her formative years were during the height of the Great Depression, and throughout the course of her life,...

Parks Associates will host the 12th-annual CONNECTIONS™ Europe: IoT and the Connected Consumer , November 1-2, 2017 at the Amsterdam Marriott Hotel, featuring high-level speakers from the top European and international companies in the digital living ecosystem. Early confirmed keynotes include: Sudeep Maitra , Global VP, Strategy and Development,  Centrica Matthias Mieves , Head of New Business, Sales & Marketing Connected Home,  Deutsche...

Every year, Amazon hosts Prime Day, a one-day event of deals exclusive to Amazon Prime members. On Monday, July 10, Amazon decided to open the floodgates early at 9 pm E.T., extending the typically 24-hour event (held on July 11) to 30 hours. The star of the event this year? The Amazon Echo. Retailed at $180, Amazon Prime promoted the device at $89.99, a whopping 50% off. Other Echo devices were also priced lower—the Dot at $34.99, a 15% cut from $49.99, the Echo Tap at $79.99, a...

Today is Amazon’s Prime Day (7/11). In the past week, noteworthy discounts on Amazon’s Alexa-powered devices has been top tech news. As of Q2/2017, Amazon’s smart speakers with the Alexa personal assistant have led smart speaker market with highest consumer adoptions (according to data from Parks Associates). During its WWDC17 keynote, Apple announced its participation in the playground with Apple HomePod, which will be ready to ship in December 2017, suggesting a coming change in...

Consumers have been relatively quick to embrace voice-based applications, beginning and led by Apple’s Siri. Parks Associates research notes that at the end of 2016, 45% of U.S. smartphone owners reported using a voice-enabled personal assistant through an app or dedicated device. As devices continue to add listening capabilities, voice control will extend throughout the home and in other connected devices as an intrinsic, easy, and natural way to facilitate smart home...

CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference , which was recently held in San Francisco, featured a very vibrant discussion where panelists and audience members attempted to determine if there was a significant market opportunity for the support of connected healthcare and fitness devices. Parks Associates presented research which highlighted the fact that the majority of connected health and fitness device owners (more than 90%) set up their devices on their own or with...