Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku 4: Which Should You Buy This Holiday Season?

"Roku continues to lead streaming media device sales in the U.S. with 34% of units sold in 2014. Google is second with 23%, and new entrant Amazon overtook Apple for third place," said Parks Associates Research Director Barbara Kraus. "The market consolidation around these four brands forces new entrants to develop more creative features and functionality to tap into the strong consumer demand for streaming content."

Three of the four companies, Amazon, Apple, and Roku have new top-tier devices for the holiday season. Google, too, has a new version of its Chromecast stick, but the $35 device can't be compared to the higher-end streaming boxes.

With these devices likely to be a popular holiday gift, here's a look at the three major players offering top-of-the-line, full-functioned boxes.

From the article "Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku 4: Which Should You Buy This Holiday Season?" by Daniel B. Kline.

Previously In The News

Amazon Prime Video app arrives on Oculus Go VR headset

Despite a respectable amount of content and games for virtual reality headsets – and options like Oculus Go driving down the cost of ownership – virtual reality has yet to tap into much of the U.S. ma...

Comcast is totally okay with you not having an Xfinity set-top box

“Pay-TV providers want to retain subscribers, so they want to make sure that you stay inside their ecosystem,” says Brett Sappington, a media analyst at Parks Associates. “If you don’t have a reason t...

Google Chromecast’s surprising origins—and uncertain future

New research out this week from Parks Associates found that Chromecast makes up just 11% of all streaming players installed in the United States, down from 21% three years ago. Meanwhile, Roku’s U.S....

The streaming wars are flooding us with TV

Password sharing cost streaming companies about $9.1 billion last year, according to data from the research firm Parks Associates. From the article "The streaming wars are flooding us with TV".