Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Alexa Leads Way In Ever-Growing Smart Speaker Segment.

Alexa is certainly making herself at home. Growth of voice assistants such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home have more than doubled over the last year alone. In fact, a new smart home research report from Parks Associates reveals that the adoption rate of smart speakers grew from 5% of U.S. broadband households in Q4 2015 to 12% in Q4 2016.

This is driven in part by continued improvements in machine learning and natural language processing and the prevalence of portable devices, the study says.

In addition, the study shows that a slightly higher percentage of U.S. broadband households (56%) want to use voice-activated personal assistance to control smart home devices compared to those who want to use voice to control entertainment devices (55%). Voice-based personal assistants such as Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana are driving the interest. And estimates show that 15.3 million Amazon Echo devices—Echo, Dot and Tap—were sold in 2016.

From the article "Alexa Leads Way In Ever-Growing Smart Speaker Segment."

Previously In The News

Report: Smart Home Devices Had Biggest Impact on Security Market in 2016

As for why dealers change their offerings, there are many possibilities. According to the Parks and SSI study, competitive forces are key. It could also be driven by the consumer, as more homeowners a...

DIY Security, Home Automation: What’s a Pro to Do?

One chief reason for the meteoric rise in DIY competition, of course, is market penetration — read: the historical lack thereof. According to the latest Parks Associates research, 75% of U.S. househol...

What Happens When Amazon Acquires a ‘Real’ Security Company Like Vivint, Guardian or Brink’s?

Professional security dealers report 36% of their alarm systems include networked cameras, according to smart-home research firm Parks Associates. The pros even manage to attach smart thermostats t...

Top 5 Home Tech Trends and Opportunities for 2017: From Voice Control to VR

Parks Associates research indicates 40 percent of U.S. smartphone owners use voice-recognition software, generally eclipsing the use of phones for streaming music to speakers or video to a second scre...