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

OTT Churn Edges Up In US

About 20% of US broadband homes had cancelled at least one OTT service in the last 12 months at the end of 2015, according to data from Parks Associates. Netflix has the lowest churn among US OTT s...

A new frenemy: Apple is going Hollywood. But it’s been a bumpy ride.

Amazon and Roku both have greater distribution in the U.S. than Apple TV. According to a Parks Associates report from last May, Roku has a 37 percent market share in the U.S., followed by Amazon Fire...

Smart Home Goal: No Doorbell Left Behind

In a second-quarter 2016 survey of on-line households, research company Parks Associates found that 50 percent of smart-doorbell owners use the devices to see who's at the door when they're not home,...

Netflix Is King Of Paid Streaming, Study Says

Netflix beats all its streaming-video rivals both on number of members and success rate of keeping them signed up, a new study said Thursday. But the rest of the over-the-top market doesn’t need to...