Parks Associates: 11% of U.S. broadband households own a smart watch and approximately one million use their watch to control devices in their home

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Dec 21, 2016) -  Parks Associates announced new research today showing that 58% of smart watch owners in the U.S. use their smart watch for fitness tracking, the most popular use case for this device. The IoT research firm will discuss the role of the smart watch in the connected health market and the connected home experience at its annual CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES®, January 5 in Las Vegas. Among smart watch owners, 57% use the device to receive notifications such as SMS and Facebook updates, and 9%, just over one million people, use a smart watch to control devices in their home.

"Health and wellness applications and services will play a large role in the smart home in 2017, driving innovations in security, wearables, and interoperability," said Harry Wang, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates. "The growing maturity of the smart watch ecosystem will fuel innovations through many of these applications and services. Apple watches and other fitness devices are popular gifts this holiday season and beyond, so their role in the connected home will continue to evolve and expand."

Currently 11% of consumers in U.S. broadband households own a smart watch, up from 6% at the beginning of 2015.

Parks Associates will host the 11th-annual CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES on January 5, 2017, at the Venetian, Level 4, Marcello 4405, in Las Vegas. The one-day conference includes more than 400 industry executives and features new consumer data presented by Parks Associates analysts.

Wang will moderate the session "The Role of Connected Health Services in the Smart Home" at 11:45 a.m. on Thursday, January 5. The session focuses on current deployments in connected health and charts the next steps for a more holistic connected home experience. Joining Wang on the panel are the following speakers:

• Liat Ben-Zur, Senior Vice President and Digital Technology Leader, Philips
• Terry Duesterhoeft, President and CEO, A&D Medical
• Lainie Muller, Director, Wellness, Alarm.com
• Kian Saneii, Founder and CEO, Independa
• Wolf Shlagman, CEO, Founder & Chief Angel, Care Angel

"Connected healthcare is taking a more prominent role in the smart home as the smart home industry is exploring new use cases to drive consumer interest and forge revenue-generating partnerships," Wang said. "This trend has galvanized interest from a variety of players, including health insurers, device manufacturers, service providers, and app developers, for the potential to improve consumer care experiences and generate new revenues from innovative services."

CONNECTIONS™ Summit: Engaging Consumers: IoT and the Smart Home features one day of panel discussions, led by Parks Associates analysts, on the smart home, IoT, connected health, and connected entertainment, with trends and implications for connected consumers and opportunities for companies to build new revenues and innovative business models.

To register for CONNECTIONS™ Summit, visit http://bit.ly/CONN_Summit. Media are invited to attend. To schedule an interview with an analyst or to request specific research data, please contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com.

For more information on Parks Associates research or events, visit www.parksassociates.com, or contact sales@parksassociates.com, 972-490-1113. Parks Associates will be at Booth #41073 in Sands A-D throughout CES 2017.

About CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES
 CONNECTIONS™ Summit at CES is an annual research and industry event hosted by international research firm Parks Associates at CES in Las Vegas. The executive event features one day of panel discussions on the smart home, Internet of Things (IoT), and connected entertainment, with trends and implications for connected consumers and opportunities for companies to build new revenues and innovative business models. The 2017 CONNECTIONS™ Summit will take place January 5 during CES, which runs January 5-8 in Las Vegas. Follow the event on Twitter at @CONN_Summit and #CONNSummit17. http//www.connectionssummit.com