Blog articles from 08/2014

In a new article for TWICE magazine , Parks Associates director of research Harry Wang outlines the wearables market potential for device OEMs. Fitness and health trackers currently represent the most popular category within the wearables market, he says, but they are also subject to obstacles that can block the growth of adoption. Most notably, fitness and health wearables face an obstacle common to all fitness devices—they are at the mercy of users’ motivations. The...

Parks Associates research finds over 50% of U.S. broadband households report having at least one chronic condition, predominantly obesity or high cholesterol. Digitization and connectivity in the healthcare industry bring fundamental changes to care practices for these conditions. Patients have multiple digital means to access health information, self-evaluate, and communicate with care providers, and in turn, care providers have far more convenient options to engage patients and...

Ten years ago, in 2004, most people did not yet have a smartphone. The iPhone and the myriad of Android-powered phones were not yet available. The progress made in the mobile market over the span of a single decade is remarkable—but even more remarkable is the market's continued transformation over the next 10 years. As smartphones become controllers for uses well beyond core communications and attach to everyday products in our homes, a new world of opportunity is at hand. By 2025,...

Parks Associates announced two new IoT research reports today— " Evolution of Smart Home and the Internet of Things " and " The Internet of Things: Business Models & Opportunities " — that show the following data: Nearly 4% of U.S. households will have a smart home controller by the end of 2014, with an estimated increase to nearly 6% by 2015. 64% of all smart devices currently in households operate as part of a security or home controls...

New research from Parks Associates shows smartwatch sales will reach almost 18 million units worldwide in 2014 and 121 million in 2018. Furthermore, the number of connected digital trackers sold worldwide rose from 6.6 million in 2012 to 13.6 million in 2013 and will double again in 2014 to exceed 22 million. By Parks Associates' estimates, connected trackers will account for 52% of all digital fitness tracker unit sales in 2014 and reach 81% by 2018 (66 million units)....

Parks Associates research shows the smart home has become a hot topic—50% of U.S. broadband homes will have at least one smart home device by 2020, and 43% of U.S. broadband households are willing to purchase a smart home package. Other areas of the IoT are just as popular: 34% of U.S. broadband households have a smart TV Nearly 20% of U.S. broadband households now have a streaming media player Over 45% of U.S. pay-TV subscribers find cloud DVR technology...

At one time, launching a new TV Everywhere service was a step that set pay-TV providers apart from the rest of the pack. Leading operators added the systems and content rights to allow delivery of TV programming to their customers on various connected screens. Those that held back, either due to cost considerations or strategy decisions, were left wondering how they would compete in a new world of video consumption. Over time, many jumped into the multiscreen fray, correctly discovering...

Matthew Holt at Health 2.0 had a few questions regarding recent Parks Associates data on consumers’ digital health activities published in this infographic . Thanks, Matthew, for your interest in our data and for starting this discussion. First, the data source. Parks Associates fields consumer surveys throughout the year on emerging consumer technologies and technology-related services, including those in the digital health space. This particular infographic pulls from a...