Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

22% Plan To Get A Smart Speaker This Year

New research from Parks Associates found that more than one in five consumers plan to purchase a voice-controlled smart speaker with a personal assistant in 2017.

Interest in the category is growing along the introduction of new devices and the expansion of others, such as the increasing number of models of Amazon Echo and Google Home devices.

"It's still early days for the voice-first market, but rapid early adoption of products like smart speakers with personal assistants, at 12% of U.S broadband households by year-end 2016, demonstrates the need and demand for a natural and easy-to-use interface," stated Dina Abdelrazik, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Natural language processing for voice technologies happen in the cloud, so real-time updates can be made quickly once consumer realities unfold. Multiple channels, from custom to direct-to-consumer retail, will focus on expanding the voice-enabled UX in 2018."

Previously In The News

Action Cams Are For Birthday Parties Not Bungee Jumping

Wearable cameras such as the GoPro may be advertised as the must-have audio-visual accessory for extreme sport thrill-seekers, but according to new research, their most common uses are much more munda...

Amazon's New Netflix Competitor Is A Bad Deal For Most People

This move brings Amazon's video service into more direct competitor with services like Netflix and Hulu. But a little simple math shows that it actually isn't a great deal unless you plan on cancel...

Merger For New Media Era Or A Bad Remake?

Pay-TV operators are seeing a "slow erosion of the core business," analyst Brett Sappington at Parks Associates said. "After years of attempts to be more than just a 'dumb pipe,' pay-TV operators h...

Has The Smart Home Found A New Voice?

"Over 70% of voice-recognition users are satisfied with the experience of using this solution on their smartphones, which is driving experimentation with this functionality on other platforms, includi...