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It works if you think of it on this level:

The goal of Parse is to make server stuff really easy for mobile development.

The goal of Heroku was to make server stuff really easy for Rails development.

Of course the analogy breaks down once you try to be more specific with what "server stuff" means. ;-)

That was my first thought as well. Apparently anything involving server-side code is now Heroku.

Heroku gives you the comfort of not having to think about configuring and maintaining the servers that run your webapp.

Parse gives you the comfort of not having to think about architecting a server-side component for your mobile app.

Basecamp gives you the comfort of not having to think about running your own project management software.

GitHub gives you the comfort of not having to think about hosting your own git repositories.

Doesn't every Software as a Service and Platform as a Service company strive to "give you the comfort of not having to think about" running some piece of software on your own servers? The incessant comparisons to Heroku are just silly now.