Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Alexa Leads Way In Ever-Growing Smart Speaker Segment.

Alexa is certainly making herself at home. Growth of voice assistants such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home have more than doubled over the last year alone. In fact, a new smart home research report from Parks Associates reveals that the adoption rate of smart speakers grew from 5% of U.S. broadband households in Q4 2015 to 12% in Q4 2016.

This is driven in part by continued improvements in machine learning and natural language processing and the prevalence of portable devices, the study says.

In addition, the study shows that a slightly higher percentage of U.S. broadband households (56%) want to use voice-activated personal assistance to control smart home devices compared to those who want to use voice to control entertainment devices (55%). Voice-based personal assistants such as Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana are driving the interest. And estimates show that 15.3 million Amazon Echo devices—Echo, Dot and Tap—were sold in 2016.

From the article "Alexa Leads Way In Ever-Growing Smart Speaker Segment."

Previously In The News

Smartwatches were finally worth our time this year

The growing popularity of smarter timepieces helps explain why smartwatches are co-opting features previously associated with fitness trackers and GPS sports watches, says Parks Associates analyst Kri...

Streaming wars will force media companies to choose between pricey subscriptions and ads

Parks Associates, a research firm that tracks the connected home, found in a recent survey that one-third of U.S. broadband households use a free, ad-based streaming service, up from 24% a year earlie...

Get ready for TiVo in the cloud, DVR box optional

"User experience defines the operator's video services for consumers," said Brett Sappington, senior director of research at Parks Associates in a statement. "Every pay-TV service and streaming video...

Save Time and Money with DIY Home Security

There's a burgeoning market for DIY home security products, thanks to advances in smart tech and more robust, easy-to-install offerings from home security manufacturers. According to market research f...