Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Amazon Echo Show Ushers in Smart Home Transformation

One of the hurdles to smart home adoption has been the complexity. What happens now is someone orders a bunch of devices or buys some things in a big box store, and they plug them all in at home, and then something goes wrong. Their Wi-Fi isn’t efficient enough to support all the devices across the house, or the devices don’t all work together, or the homeowners can’t figure out how to set the network up, and, ultimately, they aren’t blown away by the potential of the smart home.

What the Echo has proven, is that when your devices go beyond answering questions to actually conversing with you and listening and learning your context, then they are proving their value. People are starting to appreciate the benefits from this initial round of speech-enabled products. They like the frictionless interaction through voice, and they are rapidly incorporating devices like the Echo Show into their day-to-day lives. Positive experiences are then encouraging them to take the plunge with other smart home technologies. According to Parks Associates, 53 percent of owners of smart speakers with personal assistants, like Amazon Echo and Google Home, report having a smart home device as well.

From the article "Amazon Echo Show Ushers in Smart Home Transformation" by Miles Kingston.

Previously In The News

Apple Looks To Expand Healthcare Presence

“Apple has been enormously successful with its technology and brand power among consumers, so Apple’s entry into the healthcare industry is at least beneficial in raising consumer awareness of excitin...

Report: Broadband Users Will Drive Solar In 2017

That news comes out of a new report from research firm Parks Associates in its 360 View Update: Energy Management, Smart Home, & Utility Programs. In further good news for the solar industry, the repo...

The Market For Hearable Devices 2016-2020 – And Then There Were Airpods…

The hearables market goes back to the first Bluetooth headsets which were launched in 2001, followed by wireless stereo headphones, which arrived a few years later. Neither made great waves in the mar...

Is Streaming Fragmentation Reviving Piracy?

Twenty-three percent of respondents also said that they thought piracy was “OK,” a jump from 14% in 2019, when the streaming market was less saturated, according to MediaPost’s reporting of Parks...