Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Ring This Up: Smart Wearables Hitting Mainstream Status

Consumer adoption of smart wearables is now nearly half (48%) of U.S. Internet households, Kristen Hanich, director of research for Parks Associates, told a Connected Health Summit audience Thursday, signaling that the category is “crossing the chasm” -- or moving from early adopters to the mainstream.

Five years ago, “adoption was half of what it is today,” she noted, adding that as the category has evolved, consumers are increasingly turning to service subscriptions on top of the cost of the wearables themselves.

One third of wearable owners now have such subscriptions, Hanich said. These are led by cellular plans, but “fitness and lifestyle subscriptions, premium health insights, and health coaching services are in demand and growing,” she explained.

The wearables market is led by smart watches, “owned and used by roughly a third of U.S. internet households,” Hanich reported, followed by smart scales, and then connected exercise equipment.

Moving up, though, are smart rings and hybrid watches (which look like dumb analog watches despite being smart). Indeed, she said that 12% of households are likely to purchase a smart ring in the next six months, a figure just about equal to those looking to purchase both hybrid watches and GPS sports watches. Smart watches and fitness trackers still lead in consumer want lists, however.

Hanich pointed out that smart rings and hybrid watches have the advantage of being screenless devices.

From the article, "Ring This Up: Smart Wearables Hitting Mainstream Status" by Les Luchter

Previously In The News

Average Video Viewing Time Rises to 43.5 Hours Per Week in the US; Do Streamers Need More Phone-Specific Content?

New data compiled and analyzed by Parks Associates shows that average video viewing time in households in the United States has risen to 43.5 hours per week across all devices, but its numbers also sh...

Video Viewing Rises Significantly in U.S. Internet Households

U.S. Internet households now consume an average 43.5 hours of video per week across all viewing devices. That’s an increase of more than six hours in 2020, when the average was 37.2 hours, according t...

U.S. Video Consumption Tops 43 Hours Per Week

U.S. internet homes are now viewing 43.5 hours of video per week across all devices, up by more than 6 hours since 2020, according to a new study from Parks Associates. “Video-viewing households re...

Frndly TV Adds Local Stations to Streaming Lineup in 6 Markets

Last month, Parks Associates found that Frndly had the highest customer loyalty among vMVPDs. From the article, "Frndly TV Adds Local Stations to Streaming Lineup in 6 Markets" by Jon Lafayette