Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Kickstarter Darling Challenges Blue Apron--With a Hardware Twist

To this point, Patrice Samuels, a senior analyst at Parks Associates, a marketing research and consulting company, says that Tovala has to prove the food tastes good enough to offset the cost of purchasing the oven and the meal plan.

Tovala is working on that: It is relying on word-of-mouth from its initial Kickstarter backers, who received their ovens in April after a shipping delay due to Tovala's desire to make sure both the hardware and the meals were ready, and a food truck in Chicago that will allow people to sample the meals and the oven. It's hoping foodies will give it a try.

From the article "Kickstarter Darling Challenges Blue Apron--With a Hardware Twist" by Kaitlyn Wang.

Previously In The News

OpenAI Eyes AI Agent Phone, Kuo Says

“OpenAI is not a hardware company and must prove its phone performs well against the competition in terms of memory, camera quality, size, weight, screen responsiveness — all of that can be a chal...

The Smart Money: The Evolution of Residential Access Control

According to Parks Associates’ research, ownership of smart door locks reached approximately 11% of U.S. internet households in Q2 2025, and smart garage door openers have reached the same adoption le...

Sports fans face increasingly steep fees and piecemeal access to watch their favorite teams. The government wants to step in

Some 43 percent of U.S. households with Internet access watch sports, and 70 percent use a streaming platform, according to a 2025 by market research firm Parks Associates. From the article, "Sport...

Netflix Price Increase 2026: New Rates for Every Subscription Tier

Seven in ten viewers say the same ads repeat too often, making repetition the top complaint with ad-supported streaming, Parks Associates found (February 10, 2026).  Low-cost ad-supported plans...