Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku 4: Which Should You Buy This Holiday Season?

"Roku continues to lead streaming media device sales in the U.S. with 34% of units sold in 2014. Google is second with 23%, and new entrant Amazon overtook Apple for third place," said Parks Associates Research Director Barbara Kraus. "The market consolidation around these four brands forces new entrants to develop more creative features and functionality to tap into the strong consumer demand for streaming content."

Three of the four companies, Amazon, Apple, and Roku have new top-tier devices for the holiday season. Google, too, has a new version of its Chromecast stick, but the $35 device can't be compared to the higher-end streaming boxes.

With these devices likely to be a popular holiday gift, here's a look at the three major players offering top-of-the-line, full-functioned boxes.

From the article "Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku 4: Which Should You Buy This Holiday Season?" by Daniel B. Kline.

Previously In The News

One in 10 smart home device owners report unresolved technical problems

Smart home devices are supposed to make our lives easier, but if they suddenly stop working without warning, they can end up doing just the opposite. According to new research, more than one in 10 peo...

User experience key focus for smart TVs and SMPs

A Parks Associates report finds that makers of smart TVs and streaming media players (SMPs) are shifting strategies to focus on the user experience (UX) as device sales start to flatten out. Accord...

Over 70% of TV viewing by young not TV or live-streaming

TV-viewing research from Parks Associates finds that live TV viewing among all video consumption has continued to decline overall among US broadband households – nearly 60 per cent of video viewed on...

Research: 6% US broadband homes have gigabit-speed services

New research from Parks Associates finds that 22 per cent of US broadband households have a service speed of 100-999 Mbps, the most common service tier, although 39 per cent of US broadband households...