Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

The next Apple TV puts company in rare role: Playing catch-up

One of the first mainstream devices of its kind, Apple TV is a big seller worldwide. Apple has sold 25 million of the boxes in its lifetime, Chief Executive Tim Cook said in March. That beats Roku's 10 million total sold as of last year. Neither Google nor Amazon has released stats for their streaming devices, Chromecast and Fire TV, respectively.

However, Apple TV has been slipping. Last year, its US sales fell to fourth place behind Roku, Chromecast and Fire TV, according to estimates from market researcher Parks Associates. Strategy Analytics, another market researcher, similarly notes that for the first time, Apple sold fewer Apple TVs in the second quarter than it had a year earlier.

Last year, Parks Associates reported an even smaller percentage of streaming-media device owners who use voice controls, putting the number at about 4 percent. Barbara Kraus, director of research at the firm, noted that gaming consoles, not streaming-media devices, are the natural place for spoken commands to break out because video games are more interactive compared with the passive act of watching TV.

From the article "The next Apple TV puts company in rare role: Playing catch-up" by Joan E. Solsman.

Previously In The News

Insurance, the Smart Home, and the Business of Keeping Customers Engaged

It takes a lot of time and money to acquire a customer, so once you have them, you better keep them. How can you do that if you only talk to them when they have a problem? Consumer engagement was a...

Report: Smart Home Devices Had Biggest Impact on Security Market in 2016

As for why dealers change their offerings, there are many possibilities. According to the Parks and SSI study, competitive forces are key. It could also be driven by the consumer, as more homeowners a...

DIY Security, Home Automation: What’s a Pro to Do?

One chief reason for the meteoric rise in DIY competition, of course, is market penetration — read: the historical lack thereof. According to the latest Parks Associates research, 75% of U.S. househol...

Sleep Trackers Offer Money Making Opportunity

According to sleep research from Parks Associates, nearly 29 million U.S. broadband households currently own a product that helps them track their sleep quality, representing less than half of the nea...