Apple TV trails behind Roku, other TV platforms in US device sales

AppleInsider

The Apple TV ranked low in U.S. sales of streaming TV devices during the March quarter, leaving it nowhere near rivals like Roku or Sony, according to new estimates.

Apple's sales were around 13 million, Strategy Analytics indicated in a recent report. That put it ahead of devices with LG's webOS, but only by a small margin.

Leading the pack was Roku with sales of 41 million devices, or over 30% of the market. The company has had success not just with set-tops and sticks but partnerships with TV makers like TCL, which preload Roku OS.

The second most popular platform was Sony's PlayStation at around 30 million units, barely ahead of Microsoft's Xbox. Samsung (Tizen), Google (Android TV/Chromecast), Amazon (Fire TV), and Nintendo followed suit.

The reason for Apple's performance is uncertain, but an Apple TV 4K is one of the more expensive add-on options, starting at $179. Many people may also already own a smart TV, Xbox, or PlayStation, eliminating the need to buy Apple's hardware unless they want that specific platform and its apps.

Perhaps in recognition of the fact, Apple TV+ -- launching this fall -- will be available on TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio, as well as streamers by Roku and Amazon.

strangedays

Worshipping at the Church of Market Share is irrelevant. The value-add from the ATV is much more relevant to me as a happy ecosystem customer than the fact that other people are buying cheapie devices.

baka-dubbs

So, most of these are platforms that are built into TV's(Roku and Fire TV OS are part of tv's and separate dongles) and streaming isn't the primary function for most Xbox and PS users, even if they are good at it.  The better question is, who uses a freaking Nintendo Switch to watch videos???  I could see someone using it as a mobile screen(though most any phone sold today has a much higher quality screen than the switch), but come on, any other option above would be better in terms of app selection and quality.

edited July 2019

mac-daddy

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

eightzero

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

baka-dubbs

eightzero said:

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

I've gotten used to it, figuring out that I could tap the edges to move a single app/tile over saved me from snapping it in half as I scrolled past my desired location for the nth time.  To give credit to aspects of its design, its small, rechargeable battery life is fantastic, its very tough(I have stepped on it, sat on it, dropped it, etc) with no apparent damage.  It just needs more tactile inputs.  I don't know how many times I picked it up in the dark and swiped on the non touchpad side.  Have some form of tactile contour, a more tradition + input, or something like that.  My only other major complaint is the keyboard layout in tvOS.  I wish you could switch it to a QWERTY layout, having to scroll left and right for manual input(thanks Siri) is a PITA.

coolfactor

Roku has been on fire lately, forming new partnerships with all kinds of content providers, including TFC out of the Philippines. They've effectively replaced the entire physical TFC box that was being sold (which is a good thing, because it was slow and awkward!)

I think market perception is that Apple TV will limit your options because it's "only Apple", whereas Google and Amazon and Roku offers offer broader support for marketplace content. We all know that's a lie.

I think as long as Apple continues to put "Apple" into the name of their devices, they'll continue to suffer from this. Apple Watch is an exception.

mike1

baka-dubbs said:

So, most of these are platforms that are built into TV's(Roku and Fire TV OS are part of tv's and separate dongles) and streaming isn't the primary function for most Xbox and PS users, even if they are good at it.  The better question is, who uses a freaking Nintendo Switch to watch videos???  I could see someone using it as a mobile screen(though most any phone sold today has a much higher quality screen than the switch), but come on, any other option above would be better in terms of app selection and quality.

They're using it the same way as a PS4 or XBox. Connected to the TV.

edited July 2019

coolfactor

baka-dubbs said:  I wish you could switch it to a QWERTY layout, having to scroll left and right for manual input(thanks Siri) is a PITA.

Pick up a cheap Bluetooth keyboard. Solved.

mike1

Would like to see real data stripping out the TVs and game consoles where streaming is not their sole reason to exist.

ATV, various Fire Sticks and outboard Roku devices.

1stntenderbits

At least Apple is smart enough not to tie the success of their streaming service to the ATV hardware.  Making it available via as many avenues as possible gives it a better chance at success.  Big picture, if the streaming service succeeds because of ubiquity and the ATV hardware gets relegated to the past,  I'd bet Apple could live with it.  Luckily, the ATV is getting some help from the cable companies allowing customers to choose ATV's instead of cable boxes.

gatorguy

mike1 said:

Would like to see real data stripping out the TVs and game consoles where streaming is not their sole reason to exist.

ATV, various Fire Sticks and outboard Roku devices.

In my case I specifically sought out Roku OS TV's, 2 of them currently. They're simple, straightforward and streaming agnostic. Also no need for a separate interface. 

edited July 2019

spacekid

Roku $35 with a good remote vs AppleTV $149 and a lousy remote. Simple decision.

soli

eightzero said:

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

Not my idea, but I wish the Remote app on iOS and ipadOS looked as it does in portrait mode, but looked like the Apple TV display in landscape mode. Not unlike how the Calculator app changes when you rotate the screen.

djames4242

coolfactor said:

baka-dubbs said:  I wish you could switch it to a QWERTY layout, having to scroll left and right for manual input(thanks Siri) is a PITA.

Pick up a cheap Bluetooth keyboard. Solved.

Better yet, use the remote app on your phone. When the onscreen keyboard pops up, your phone will automatically get an alert that you tap on and it will bring up a keyboard you can type on. It's fast, and way easier.

djames4242

The reason people have competing devices, generally, is cost. A Roku or Fire Stick is much cheaper than an TV, but you get what you pay for. We have TVs on our two primary televisions, but I didn't want to spend that much on a device for our seldom-used TV, but we needed something to run the DirecTV Now app since that's our television provider. I picked up a $25 Roku and sent it back three days later. It was unusably slow. Changing between apps took at least ten seconds, and just changing channels within DTV Now took anywhere between 2-5 seconds. When channel surfing, that's unacceptable. I decided to take a chance on an Amazon Fire Stick for roughly the same price. It's decidedly better, but I wouldn't use it on a TV that got more than occasional use.

I'm sure the higher-priced models are better, but then you're eroding that cost savings and not getting the superior experience (Siri Remote, excepted)

curtis hannah

The Apple TV is a great device, but the base model HD version cost $150, sometimes 4 times what the competitors are offering, Apple isn’t going to have a lot of market share unless they have something less than half the price of the current one(like the 3rd gen was at some point), and I don’t think they have any plans to actually compete as they are releasing the Apple TV app to smart TVs, and I think that Is a better decision than trying to make a half baked version at less than half the price.

jcs2305

baka-dubbs said:

eightzero said:

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

I've gotten used to it, figuring out that I could tap the edges to move a single app/tile over saved me from snapping it in half as I scrolled past my desired location for the nth time.  To give credit to aspects of its design, its small, rechargeable battery life is fantastic, its very tough(I have stepped on it, sat on it, dropped it, etc) with no apparent damage.  It just needs more tactile inputs.  I don't know how many times I picked it up in the dark and swiped on the non touchpad side.  Have some form of tactile contour, a more tradition + input, or something like that.  My only other major complaint is the keyboard layout in tvOS.  I wish you could switch it to a QWERTY layout, having to scroll left and right for manual input(thanks Siri) is a PITA.

Why not use the remote app?  It allows copy and pasting as well as a full keyboard? Also in setting slow the scroll speed down. It helps a lot and let's you scroll tile to tile much easier.  The newer remotes and the ATV 4k remotes have a raised ring around the menu button.. which makes it MUCH easier to identify how you are holding the remote.  Why they didn't use this design from the beginning I have no clue?

Personally my main complaint overall is how damn sensitive it is. If a single hair of my arm brushes against what I am watching may pause.. or start fast forwarding.. or one of the top or bottom menus comes up!  Hahaha it drives me crazy!  I watch in bad at night.. so I want to keep the remote nearby.

appleexposed

It's tough when Roku is selling their crap for 36 bucks and Amazon is giving their spyware away.

OK Read the report. MAJOR problem here:
They are counting pre-loaded Roku OS TVs as "share". I bet that alone is 50% of Roku sales. We have an AppleTV connected to a Roku TV. We never, I mean NEVER touched the Roku portion and 99% of the TVs use is Apple TV with the other 1% being Over-the-air and Nintendo Switch.

My mom likes Apple TV and I'm thinking of getting her one with a TCL(Roku) TV. This will automatically give Roku another sale even though it isn't the reason I'll buy the TV. This will cancel out my AppleTV sale. lol

eightzero said:

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

spacekid said:

Roku $35 with a good remote vs AppleTV $149 and a lousy remote. Simple decision.

What are you guys on about? Have you used the Roku version?

I had to house-sit and they only had a Roku. Navigation and search was TEDIOUS. Things like swiping which I took for granted were gone and it took me almost a minute to click through crap. I probably wasted a total of 30 minutes that would have been saved on AppleTV.

fatman

Apple TV interface works, picture and audio quality is excellent. What's missing - more apps and games and of course, a lower price - make it $99 and it will sell well.

The remote? Atrocious - I would have fired Ive for this debacle alone. It's obvious he skipped all his classes in physical ergonomics. Can't wait for the new generation to fix his bad deeds.

appleexposed

curtis hannah said:

The Apple TV is a great device, but the base model HD version cost $150, sometimes 4 times what the competitors are offering, Apple isn’t going to have a lot of market share unless they have something less than half the price of the current one(like the 3rd gen was at some point), and I don’t think they have any plans to actually compete as they are releasing the Apple TV app to smart TVs, and I think that Is a better decision than trying to make a half baked version at less than half the price.

I think gaming is the missing link. If they get serious about gaming and include the A12x chip, price won't matter.

jcs2305 said:

baka-dubbs said:

eightzero said:

mac-daddy said:

The interface of Apple TV is solid, it's the damn remote I can't get used to. Way too simplistic. 

Ayup. When I first got it, I thought I could tolerate the remote. I was wrong. I don't use my AppleTV hardly at all now because of it. 

I've gotten used to it, figuring out that I could tap the edges to move a single app/tile over saved me from snapping it in half as I scrolled past my desired location for the nth time.  To give credit to aspects of its design, its small, rechargeable battery life is fantastic, its very tough(I have stepped on it, sat on it, dropped it, etc) with no apparent damage.  It just needs more tactile inputs.  I don't know how many times I picked it up in the dark and swiped on the non touchpad side.  Have some form of tactile contour, a more tradition + input, or something like that.  My only other major complaint is the keyboard layout in tvOS.  I wish you could switch it to a QWERTY layout, having to scroll left and right for manual input(thanks Siri) is a PITA.

Why not use the remote app?  It allows copy and pasting as well as a full keyboard? Also in setting slow the scroll speed down. It helps a lot and let's you scroll tile to tile much easier.  The newer remotes and the ATV 4k remotes have a raised ring around the menu button.. which makes it MUCH easier to identify how you are holding the remote.  Why they didn't use this design from the beginning I have no clue?

Personally my main complaint overall is how damn sensitive it is. If a single hair of my arm brushes against what I am watching may pause.. or start fast forwarding.. or one of the top or bottom menus comes up!  Hahaha it drives me crazy!  I watch in bad at night.. so I want to keep the remote nearby.

We hardly ever have this problem and the kids are pros with the remote. I can see this being a problem with some people though.

I think Apple should include 3D touch in the next remote version so brushing over it doesn't disturb it. Also Apples great palm rejection tech can be utilized.