"smart watch" articles

According to Reuters and CNBC, Google (aka Alphabet) has made an offer to acquire Fitbit. This stands to considerably shake up the wearables space. Fitbit is the number one wearables company in the US—Parks Associates consumer surveys find that among the 19% of heads of US broadband households that own and use wearables, Fitbit has nearly 60% penetration—twice that of its nearest competitor, Apple. Looking specifically at smart watch models, Parks Associates finds that...

When the Apple Watch Series 4 was released in September 2018, a number of new health-related smartwatch features made their debut. The newly built-in ECG feature, and the most recently announced enhanced sleep tracking feature, have been the focus of many reviews; however, the fall detection capability may prove to be one of the most valuable features the Apple Watch has to offer. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that between the years 2007 and 2016, fall death rates in...

Apple kicked off the company’s Apple Event day with the introduction of the new Series 4 Apple Watch. As anticipated from leaked photos, the new version maintains the same exterior dimensions as the Series 3 but has 30% larger screens. It has louder speakers, a faster dual-core processor, and greater interaction with the Siri digital assistant – all very useful and largely anticipated upgrades. More significant are new functions that turn the watch into a medical...

Parks Associates research finds that 75% of smart watch owners and 68% of fitness tracker owners are using their devices every day . How are consumers utilizing digital health applications? This new infographic below highlights the top 10 ways consumers use health apps the most, including tracking resting heart rates and consumed calories, setting exercise goals, and logging food and drink. Notably, almost half (48%) of daily app users utilize their health devices to track the...

As the Parks Associates team gears up for our annual Connected Health Summit next week, we’re reviewing some of our latest research on trends in consumer health concerns.  One of the most striking trends is the rising level of consumers who report concern that stress and anxiety will cause their health to worsen. A stunning quarter of U.S. broadband households are “very concerned” (rating 6-7 on a 7-point scale) about stress and anxiety worsening their health. Said another way,...

This week, Google parent company Alphabet’s life sciences outfit Verily announced a new joint venture with connected sleep diagnostics and treatment leader ResMed. The joint venture will develop software solutions to better identify sleep apnea and manage treatment. Awareness of sleep apnea is a substantial issue, with ResMed estimating 80% of U.S. consumers with the condition are undiagnosed and untreated. A new study  conducted by Parks Associates finds that 42% of...

If you spent any time in the Sands Convention Center—part of CES 2018’s Tech West exhibition—you couldn’t miss the explosion of companies offering sleep solutions this year. From startups to established companies like Philips and Nokia, everyone wants to capture a piece of this market. Form factors on display include smart mattresses, sensor strips that slip underneath sheets, smart pillows, smart sensors that clip on pillows, smart sensors that clip on clothes, bed-side...

Smart watch adoption is picking up in the United States. According to Parks Associates' most recent survey data, as of 2017 14% of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart watch. Consumer-reported purchase intention for smart watches has also more than doubled year-over-year, ahead of the holiday shopping season. 2017 is an important year for the U.S. smart watch market. Traditional fitness wearable brands Fitbit and Garmin have announced their first "true" smart...