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

Amazon & Roku Control Almost 70% of The US Streaming Player Market

We have known for some time now that Roku and Amazon have dominated the United States streaming market. Now according to Parks Associates Roku and Amazon now control almost 70% of the market. This lea...

DirecTV Wants To Be The Next Online Substitute For Cable

And plenty of people never signed up for a $100 TV bundle to begin with. Research firm SNL Kagan estimates that about 14.4 million households pay for internet but not TV. AT&T sees the potential marke...

Roku is the Most Owned Set-Top Box with Cord Cutters, But the Apple TV & Fire TV See Strong Growth

However, this is a noticeable change from our summer 2016 survey that showed Roku with over 70% of the market share, the Fire TV at just over 33%, and the Apple TV at just 18%. (Note: We did allow our...

Revenge of the Antenna

The percentage of broadband-connected households using antenna-delivered broadcast TV has jumped from 9 percent to 15 percent over the past three years. And the percentage getting pay-TV service has d...