With no new streaming video player in two and a half years, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is losing ground in the market. Apple's set-top box, Apple TV, slipped to fourth place in U.S. sales of streaming media devices last year, research firm Parks Associates reported Thursday.
Roku continues to lead in streaming media device sales, accounting for 34% of units sold in 2014. Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was second with 23%. Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) overtook Apple for third place. Amazon grabbed 16% of the market, compared with 13% for Apple.
Together the top four brands accounted for 86% of all streaming media devices sold to U.S. broadband households in 2014, Parks said.
"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," Parks analyst Barbara Kraus said in a statement. "Devices with additional functionality such as the Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Compute Stick may be a sign of things to come, where streaming is not the primary function but an extra feature to provide additional value."
From the article "Apple TV Falls Behind In Streaming Device Market" by Patrick Seitz.
Voice’s resurgence seems counter-intuitive. The technology first boomed in the 1990s with voice prompters in customer call centers – not always a satisfying experience as the prompters many times rout...
According to the Parks Associates survey, 55 percent of Americans with at least one chronic condition aren’t speaking with their primary care physician any more than once every three months. What’s wo...
In addition, the device's interoperability will be important. According to a recent study by Parks Associates and reported in Retail Dive, 75% of consumers who plan to buy a smart home device believe...
Earlier this year, a report from digital health analyst Parks Associates found that 27 percent of people with a chronic condition want a mobile health device that tracks their health, but a significan...
