Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Amazon Echo Show Ushers in Smart Home Transformation

One of the hurdles to smart home adoption has been the complexity. What happens now is someone orders a bunch of devices or buys some things in a big box store, and they plug them all in at home, and then something goes wrong. Their Wi-Fi isn’t efficient enough to support all the devices across the house, or the devices don’t all work together, or the homeowners can’t figure out how to set the network up, and, ultimately, they aren’t blown away by the potential of the smart home.

What the Echo has proven, is that when your devices go beyond answering questions to actually conversing with you and listening and learning your context, then they are proving their value. People are starting to appreciate the benefits from this initial round of speech-enabled products. They like the frictionless interaction through voice, and they are rapidly incorporating devices like the Echo Show into their day-to-day lives. Positive experiences are then encouraging them to take the plunge with other smart home technologies. According to Parks Associates, 53 percent of owners of smart speakers with personal assistants, like Amazon Echo and Google Home, report having a smart home device as well.

From the article "Amazon Echo Show Ushers in Smart Home Transformation" by Miles Kingston.

Previously In The News

Research: over 50% of U.S. broadband households stream content on TV screens

Parks Associates, a market intelligence and consulting company, yesterday released research showing that over 50% of U.S. broadband households stream content on TV screens. “For years, the televisi...

Why Facebook may need to work faster to stop the flow of fake news

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg publishes his manifesto outlining the company's ongoing commitment to filter out false news and hoaxes without undermining free speech, the findings from a new study by...

63% Of Americans Unfamiliar With Virtual Reality; Less Than 6% Plan On Buying A Headset Soon

Despite 2016 seeing virtual reality break into the mainstream market, headset manufacturers such as Sony, Oculus and HTC still have a lot of work to do in order to educate the masses, according to a n...

PayPal, Starbucks top consumers' mobile payments preferences, study says

Nearly 20 percent of U.S. smartphone users have used a mobile payment app at a retail location, according to new mobile research from Parks Associates. The report, 360 View: Mobility and the App Ec...