In The News

Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Dallas-based Parks Associates, said that how AT&T markets and invests in DirecTV Now during the second half of 2017 could provide an indication as to how it will prioritize streaming TV moving forward. The Dallas telco otherwise has reason to play its preferences close to its chest, Sappington said.

“If you’ve hired someone to be in charge of DirecTV Now, you don’t want to tell them, ‘you’re a nice-to-have, but traditional is ...read more

The ability to understand and process language has improved so much that Xuedong Huang, the chief speech scientist at Microsoft, said his company’s system has reached parity with human transcriptionists.

Voice systems have become more accurate because the artificial intelligence behind them has improved, said Brett Sappington, senior research director at Parks Associates, a Dallas research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology.

From the arti ...read more

The early support for Thread may even hint at where Eero is going next. Tom Kerber, an analyst for Parks Associates, notes that one of the main features of Thread is that it’s decentralized. Instead of sending all communications through a single hub, Thread enables a scenario where any device can make decisions and perform computing on behalf of other devices on the network.

“When you talk to the silicon vendors, their long-term view of the connected home, and how it operate ...read more

Despite the enthusiasm for VR in the popular consciousness, however, it has not yet reached must-have status in the consumer electronics sector. A Parks Associates survey found that, as of May 2016, only 2 percent of U.S. households owned a VR headset. VR won’t realize its marketing potential until the goggles become something that the average person straps on every day.

From the article "How Businesses Can Use VR to Win the Race to Consumers’ Hearts (and Homes)" by Tony Tie.

The technology industry is captivated by titans fighting over voice-activated home speakers. The war among Amazon, Google and Apple is technology's newest frontier, but it's also pretty small potatoes. People might spend a few billion dollars this year on computer-assisted speakers such as the Amazon Echo, based on forecasts from research firm Parks Associates.

The big-ticket fight on the tech frontier is happening not in happy homes bathed in WiFi but in the cold, warehouse ...read more

In what is a growing list of bad news for traditional pay-TV services, it turns out fewer Americans rely on just traditional pay-TV services. Over half of all pay-TV subscribers also subscribe to a streaming video service.

This data comes from Parks Associates and gives us a look into the steady growth of cord cutting.

The study clearly shows three things happening in the world of pay TV.

From the article "New Study Shows The Growing Decline of Cable TV" by Luke Bouma.

While the HomePod is new and the actual speaker appears to be of a much higher fidelity than its rivals, it's not a game-changer.

"Apple is in a position that they haven't often been in over the past 15 years," Glenn Hower, a digital media analyst at Parks Associates, said in an interview from Dallas. "Right now, they're really playing catch-up, trying to make a big splash with home innovations. In some ways, they're responding rather than innovating."

From the article " ...read more

“Getting consumers to interact with Apple in a whole bunch of different ways helps develop that positive relationship early,” said Jennifer Kent, a director of research at Parks Associates, a Dallas research and consulting firm.

Already, Apple has a strong following among younger consumers. Last year, 39 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. purchased an Apple product, compared with the 23 percent who bought a Samsung device, according to Parks Associates. Samsung is th ...read more