Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

How Many Consumers Actually Have VR Headsets?

Parks Associates released new consumer research this week showing that 2 percent of U.S. broadband households, or 2.3 million households, own a virtual reality headset. The survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households reportedly reveals that 5 percent of U.S. broadband households plan to buy a VR headset in 2016, an increase from only 1 percent who made a purchase the year prior.

“The big change in VR for 2016 has been the availability or pending availability of VR headsets from companies such as Facebook (Oculus Rift), Google (Google Cardboard) and HTC (Vive). Sony PlayStation VR is expected to be released in October. We expect gamers to be the initial market for VR,” Barbara Kraus, Parks Associates director of research, says. “VR is an immersive experience, and more is better for gamers – more immersion, better sound, better graphics, and more players. The mass market is more likely to adopt mobile VR, which will be less expensive and uses a tool – the smartphone – that the majority of U.S. consumers own.”

From the article "How Many Consumers Actually Have VR Headsets?" by Laura Hamilton.

Previously In The News

Why Open Wins Over Proprietary In The Smart Home

There are many glowing predictions regarding the smart home, and the wider IoT industry, but a Gartner report predicted only last year that 21 billion IoT endpoints will be in use by 2020, which will...

20% of US pay-TV subscribers were dissatisfied - study

A fifth (20%) of US pay-TV subscribers were dissatisfied with their pay-TV service at the end of last year, up 100 percent from early 2013, a study from Parks Associates showed. The researcher said hi...

Third Of US Broadband Households Have Multiple OTT Packs

Approximately 31 percent of U.S. broadband households have multiple OTT service subscriptions, which is nearly one-half of the 63 percent of U.S. broadband households subscribing to at least one OTT s...

Voice Commands, Personal Assistants the Next Frontier for Device Interactions, Gartner Predicts

Parks Associates released findings in October estimating that 46 percent of U.S. Millennials with smartphones use voice recognition software, while a separate report from TiVO indicated 43 percent of...