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Fitness Band Ownership Up, But Purchase Intent Declines

Fitness band ownership among women, a key demographic for the product, is still rising, but purchase intent has slipped, according to Piper Jaffray’s sixth semiannual women’s survey. Piper Jaffray reported Wednesday that 21% of women surveyed own a fitness band, up from 18% in the fall survey. Meanwhile, 9% of women said they own a smartwatch, up from 8% in the fall. However, the intent to buy a fitness band in the next six months fell to 15% in the spring survey, from 19% in the fall. Intent to buy a smartwatch also dipped, falling to 10% in the spring survey from 13% last fall. “While ownership has improved, we did detect the first downtick in future spending intentions on the (fitness band) category,” Piper Jaffray analyst Erinn Murphy said in a report. “We could be approaching a saturation point with select brands.” Fitbit ( FIT ) remained the No. 1 preferred fitness band, with 77% mindshare, up from 68% six months ago. Garmin ( GRMN ) and Jawbone tied for second place, each with 5% share. Apple ( AAPL ) led the smartwatch category with 49% share, up from 42% six months ago. Fitbit jumped to the No. 2 spot after announcing its Fitbit Blaze smartwatch. It grabbed 20% mindshare, up 9% last fall. Samsung fell to third place with 14% share, down from 19% six months ago. Fitbit overtook Under Armour ( UA ) as the top fitness app provider in the spring survey. Fitbit garnered 29% mindshare in fitness apps, up from 18% last fall. Under Armour dropped to second place with 22% share vs. 27% last fall. Some 30% of women use a fitness app, down from 32% six months ago, the survey showed. For its latest survey, Piper Jaffray interviewed more than 1,000 U.S. women, with an average age of 49 and 73% with a household income of $35,000 to $80,000. RELATED: Apple Watch Shipments Slowed In Holiday Quarter . Fitbit Face-Plants After Giving Weak Q1 Guidance, User Numbers .  

Mobile Accessories Maker Zagg Disappoints With Q4 Earnings

Mobile device accessories maker Zagg ( ZAGG ) tumbled Wednesday after missing fourth-quarter sales and earnings targets. Zagg stock was down about 14%, near 9, in midday trading on the stock market today . The Salt Lake City-based company late Tuesday said it earned 18 cents a share on sales of $78.6 million in Q4. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for 24 cents a share on sales of $82.94 million. On a year-over-year basis, EPS tumbled 58%, and sales fell 23%. Best known for making InvisibleShield screen protectors, Zagg also makes tablet keyboards, smartphone cases, portable power devices and audio products. On March 3, Zagg completed its $100 million purchase of Mophie, a maker of battery cases and external power products for mobile devices. Zagg executives, in their earnings conference call late Tuesday, focused on full-year results. In 2015, Zagg’s sales rose 3% to $269.3 million, and EPS rose 59% to 54 cents. For 2016, Zagg expects sales of $460 million to $500 million. It sees $285 million to $305 million in sales from the legacy Zagg business and $210 million to $230 million coming from Mophie. On the call, Zagg CEO Randy Hales said the company’s new-product pipeline is the best in the company’s history. Upcoming offerings include new screen protectors, keyboards and audio products, he said. Zagg, however, was dealt a setback in screen protectors when Apple ( AAPL ) forged a partnership with rival Belkin in the category. Starting Feb. 9, Apple Store employees began offering to apply Belkin screen protectors on iPhone 6 and 6S series phones, MacRumors reported . “Real kudos to Belkin for having put something in there that captured the attention of Apple, and doing a good job rolling that out,” Hales said on the call. “We actually like it, because it increases awareness to the category, that people really need to protect these devices they are purchasing.” RELATED: Zagg Zigs To Find New Mobile Accessories Business .

Google Chromecast Tops Apple TV In Streamer Market

Alphabet ‘s ( GOOGL ) Google Chromecast widened its lead in the digital media streamer market last year over devices from Apple ( AAPL ), Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and Roku. Google’s low-cost HDMI dongle for streaming Internet video to television sets grabbed 35% of the market in 2015, up from 28% in 2014, Strategy Analytics reported Tuesday. Apple TV ranked second with a 20% market share, down from 22% in 2014. Amazon Fire TV and Roku tied for third, each with a 15% market share. “Google’s puck-sized Chromecast dongle continues to have broad appeal with consumers who favor its mobile-centric approach to content access and control,” Strategy Analytics analyst David Watkins said in a statement . “The device’s portability and low price at just $35 has made it an impulse purchase for many and household ownership of multiple Chromecasts is not uncommon.” Based on cumulative shipments of digital media streamers, Apple leads the market with nearly 37 million Apple TV units sold since its launch in 2007. Chromecast is catching up fast with 27 million units sold in just 2.5-years. Roku’s Box and Streaming Stick products are third with 20 million units, followed by Amazon Fire TV with less than 10 million. Amazon, Apple, Google and Roku accounted for 85% of the 42 million digital streaming devices sold last year. But dedicated streaming media boxes and dongles accounted for 19% of the overall connected TV device market in 2015. All told, 220 million connected TV devices shipped last year, including smart TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, game consoles and streaming boxes, Strategy Analytics said. Smart TVs accounted for 54% of connected TV device shipments in 2015, reaching 120 million units, the research firm said. Samsung, LG and Sony ( SNE ) have a combined 50% share of the smart-TV market. “Our research shows that U.S. broadband homes own an average of 2.3 such devices giving them multiple means by which to stream video and audio content to the TV,” Strategy Analytics analyst Chirag Upadhyay said. “While some consumers will have a favored method, we find that most households are switching between different devices depending on the user and type of content being consumed.” Consumers increasingly are choosing to watch Internet TV services such as Netflix ( NFLX ), Hulu and YouTube.