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

News, Rumors, and More: Here's Everything We Know about the Apple TV

In keeping with the Washington Post report, Bloomberg believes the tech giant plans to officially announce the new set-top streamer in September, alongside three new iPhone models and a new Apple Watc...

Roku's Lead in the Streaming Device Market Keeps Growing

In the first quarter of 2016, one-third of streaming devices owned in U.S. broadband households were manufactured by Roku. That is a pretty substantial chunk, given the big names making up the competi...

Over 70% of TV viewing by young not TV or live-streaming

TV-viewing research from Parks Associates finds that live TV viewing among all video consumption has continued to decline overall among US broadband households – nearly 60 per cent of video viewed on...

One in 10 smart home device owners report unresolved technical problems

Smart home devices are supposed to make our lives easier, but if they suddenly stop working without warning, they can end up doing just the opposite. According to new research, more than one in 10 peo...