Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Business and COVID-19

According to research done by Parks Associates, technology was impressed into service at greater volumes than in previous years due to the stay-at-home orders in much of the country. They found one-third of smart device owners in U.S. households with broadband have increased usage of their devices during the COVID-19 pandemic, including 46% of smart door lock owners. As market adoption and usage increase, however, new challenges in the consumer experience are emerging, which could impact current and future growth. A growing percentage of smart home device owners now experience multiple problems with their devices each year, and 16% of US broadband households report home network problems have disrupted work-at-home activities during COVID-19.

Parks Associates’ surveys show nearly 29% of SMBs report their company is at risk of going out of business due to COVID-19. The public health crisis and months of shelter-in-place orders have had a dramatic impact, particularly on SMBs. Their report, New SMB Landscape: Devices, Communication, Security, Support, provides insights on technology adoption and needs among SMB owners and IT personnel and examines the changes taking place as a result of reduced budgets and a broad shift to working from home.

Parks Associates analyzed the data and found that most SMBs spend less than 20% of their overall budget on IT products and services, and one-third do not appear to have had a planned budget for IT products and services at all in 2020. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies scrambled to get the equipment to allow their employees to work at home. Nearly one-fourth report their spending on internet and IT services and devices has increased since the outbreak, and the continued uncertainty of the operating environment is making it difficult for them to develop solid budgetary plans for 2021.

From the article "Business and COVID-19".

Previously In The News

More Americans now pay for streaming video content than cable television, survey finds

Netflix is also preparing to crackdown on illegal account sharing via new artificial intelligence software, which will be able to analyze which users are logged in and then flag shared accounts. Th...

Three out of four consumers worry about internet hacking

Hacking concerns are high among consumers, particularly those who own connected devices. Worry that their computers could be hacked, and their broadband connections too, is high, said a new report fro...

Smart home devices have a big data problem, and it's growing

That trend, to start making customers pay to access data, dovetails with research found by Parks Associates earlier this year, which noted that new smart home security customers spend about $55, on av...

Parks: Netflix retains OTT top-spot in the US

“Importantly, all of these services have increased their subscriber base over the past year,” said Parks Associates. “The top five OTT services have stayed consistent, primarily through maintaining or...