"tablets" articles

Parks Associates research released yesterday  revealed that Apple's shares of the tablet market are falling, decreasing from 46% in 1Q 2012 to 37% today. Rival companies Samsung and Amazon are picking up the extra shares, both vying for second place with about 15% of the tablet market.  The new research comes from the firm's primary consumer study, 360 View: Mobility and the App Economy , which also shows that 60% of U.S. broadband households own a tablet....

This morning, activist investor Carl Icahn issued an open letter to Apple, urging the technology innovator to buyback more shares. As an industry analyst, I am more interested in Mr. Icahn’s rationales and assumptions about Apple’s future growth, and there are plenty in that open letter. We agree with Mr. Icahn on many fronts but also disagree with him on several other areas. Here is a quick summary of how I dissect his arguments. What we agree with Mr. Icahn:...

In conjunction with this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Parks Associates released new mobile industry research detailing the dynamic mobile data market from the perspective of the mobile operator. The research report, Optimization & Monetization Mobile Data Traffic , reveals that mobile network operator revenues are declining due to increased competition. "Since 2008, revenues from voice services for the top-four U.S. mobile network operators (MNOs) have...

HP’s announcement last week about the launch of two new Android-powered mobile devices, the Slate6 and Slate7, was not entirely unexpected as Meg Whitman, HP’s CEO, has been indicating HP’s return to the smartphone market for well over a year now.  It is an acknowledgement from HP of the shift in computing from PC to mobile, and as a computing company, HP simply cannot ignore mobile for much longer. Two things about the announcement are interesting-HP’s choice of country...

Watches, bracelets, gloves and hats, are currently being updated with Bluetooth wireless technology which allows them to collect data and send it back to a smartphone or tablet application. Bluetooth Smart is fast becoming the connectivity solution or wearable technology by appealing to consumers with both wearable sports and fitness trackers. Bluetooth Smart, an intelligent and power-friendly version of Bluetooth wireless technology, is making wearables accessible for the mass...

The Smart Power Strip allows its users to control their plugged-in home appliances through a smartphone app for iOS and Android. Besides turning the appliance on and off directly, the app can also function as timer and will turn an appliance on and off at a certain time, it can also send notifications appliances have been on for too long, and monitor the specific energy consumption of different electronics. The current Smart Power Strip prototype has three U.S. power sockets, but...

A new survey found one-quarter of pay-TV subscribers have tried to watch online video that requires them to "authenticate" their status as a pay-TV subscriber. Authenticated video is one way of providing subscribers access to content via computers, tablets, and smartphones. The upside (from the pay-TV provider's point of view) is that the technological burden of delivering access is shifted onto content provider. The downside is that it makes for a pretty lousy user...

Parks Associates has relesased a new market focus, Support Services for Mobile Devices . This research analyzes the market for technical support services for smartphones and tablets. It begins by exploring and number and types of problems consumers experience and how they resolve these problems. Next it analyzes subscription support services including current and previous adopters as well as the demand for such services. Finally, it gauges the use of support apps and their role in...