Smart TV adoption outpacing streaming devices like Apple TV, Roku
Streaming devices and set-top boxes like Roku or the Apple TV are increasingly losing ground to internet-connected smart TVs with the shift amplified by the coronavirus pandemic, new data shows.
Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider
Smart TVs that connect to broadband, which have streaming apps built right in, can bypass the need for dedicated streaming hardware such as Apple's tvOS devices. And thanks for a steady reduction in price, many consumers seem to be opting for the all-in-one solution.
Earlier in 2020, the percentage of U.S. households with broadband that had a smart TV reached 54%, according to data cited by The Information. That's a 47% year-over-year increase and well above the 42% share held by all streaming devices and set-top boxes combined.
The gap between the markets is likely to keep growing, since the Consumer Technology Association that estimates that consumers will buy 35 million smart TVs in 2020, compared to 22 million streaming devices.
Although roughly half of smart TV owners also use a streaming device, but new generations of smart TVs are making it easier to skip set-top boxes or streaming sticks entirely.
Among streaming devices, Roku still commands the largest share of the market with 38%. Its followed closely by Fire TV, in second place with 32%, and Apple TV, which has 13%.
According to The Information, some entertainment companies are discussing ways to bypass set-top boxes by working directly with smart TV manufacturers.
But while the increasing popularity of smart TVs is likely to impact the sales of physical hardware like Roku streaming sticks and Apple TVs, Apple's services arm is positioned to take advantage of the growth.
The Apple TV app, which lets users watch Apple TV+ and other content, is available on a number of third-party smart TVs and streaming devices.
A rumored upcoming version of the Apple TV, which may debut later in 2020, could feature bumps to memory and performance. Apple also appears to be shifting its Apple TV strategy to incorporate gaming and home automation, too.
Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider
Smart TVs that connect to broadband, which have streaming apps built right in, can bypass the need for dedicated streaming hardware such as Apple's tvOS devices. And thanks for a steady reduction in price, many consumers seem to be opting for the all-in-one solution.
Earlier in 2020, the percentage of U.S. households with broadband that had a smart TV reached 54%, according to data cited by The Information. That's a 47% year-over-year increase and well above the 42% share held by all streaming devices and set-top boxes combined.
The gap between the markets is likely to keep growing, since the Consumer Technology Association that estimates that consumers will buy 35 million smart TVs in 2020, compared to 22 million streaming devices.
Although roughly half of smart TV owners also use a streaming device, but new generations of smart TVs are making it easier to skip set-top boxes or streaming sticks entirely.
Among streaming devices, Roku still commands the largest share of the market with 38%. Its followed closely by Fire TV, in second place with 32%, and Apple TV, which has 13%.
According to The Information, some entertainment companies are discussing ways to bypass set-top boxes by working directly with smart TV manufacturers.
But while the increasing popularity of smart TVs is likely to impact the sales of physical hardware like Roku streaming sticks and Apple TVs, Apple's services arm is positioned to take advantage of the growth.
The Apple TV app, which lets users watch Apple TV+ and other content, is available on a number of third-party smart TVs and streaming devices.
A rumored upcoming version of the Apple TV, which may debut later in 2020, could feature bumps to memory and performance. Apple also appears to be shifting its Apple TV strategy to incorporate gaming and home automation, too.
Comments
Not even. A lot are WebOS, Roku, and a few other OSes.
I want Apple to go all the way and release an A14 Apple TV or even an Apple Silicon based one. If Apple wants to stay relevant and deepen us into their ecosystem they need to start doing something with Apple TV.
Also maybe Apple can have contracts with certain TV manufacturers to run tvOS with A-chip hardware because everything else is garbage.
BUT... this is about the mass market, and as "good enough" smart TV comes to cheaper and cheaper sets, the mass market won't see a need to continue buying separate boxes, unless they can offer significant added value.
I do. So Apple's vision can come to fruition.
Thought "Apple Silicon" branding was for Mac SOCs? This family of chips will be faster than the A-series found in Apple TV.
Unless you're being sarcastic, which is technically correct!
Their Apple TV game is garbage. They treat tvOS like an adopted child.
I'd hope for A14 or even Mac Apple Silicon for gaming. But Apple is hung up on supporting the most devices possible for Arcade such as iPhone 6s so I can see this hurting graphics performance. I think Apple should allow developers to support A14 exclusively for larger titles. Otherwise it's mobile gaming on the big screen at best.
Samsung smart TV = Tizen.
LG smart TV = lgOS.
Sony smart TV = Android.
As for the rest, it varies. Some older smart TVs basically run a browser on top of Linux, which is what the "smart" DVD/Blu-Ray players did and what the Nintendo Wii/Wii U consoles did too. Newer smart TVs are Roku (#1 by far) with the rest split between Android TV and Fire TV. Android TV may have a slight advantage because they have more manufacturers thanks to Google's rules that if you manufacture an AOSP device you can't manufacture a Google Android device. Lots of the companies that make smart TVs also make Android phones or tablets - TCL, Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus, Nokia, Foxconn and Sharp being huge examples but also Haier, Philips and Hisense in some overseas markets - or want to reserve the option to be able to in the future. That limits the Fire TV manufacturers to Insignia and Toshiba (who both gave up on Android tablets years ago).
As for the cheap low end hardware ... that is also a bit outdated. Thanks to Amazon Fire products, the standard smart TV uses the same turnkey stack: an ARM SOC by either Amlogic, Allwinner or MediaTEK that includes the CPU, 2GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and a gigabit NIC on the same board. The attempts by Amazon and Google to turn their smart TV boxes into mini-gaming consoles flopped - Google is giving it another go with Stadia - but they don't need much horsepower to begin with. Smart TV apps are increasingly migrating to PWAs - which is all they were on the original smart TVs anyway - so the only "performance" required will be the networking stuff. What is very cheap for a tablet or phone is different for a smart TV. In addition to not having to rely on a battery which makes the power design way different, in a smartphone or tablet the mobile SOC actually drives the display. Meanwhile with a smart TV, the SOC is just another input to the TV display. It takes the same, say, Amazon Fire Stick or Roku hardware, puts it inside the TV and assigns it to, say "HDMI 0". So the smart TV CPU isn't actually driving a 70 inch 8K TV the way that a Qualcomm CPU inside a Samsung Galaxy is actually driving the 4K display. Instead, the TV's hardware is. Take the ARM SOC out of the smart TV and you will still have a 1080P/4K/8K TV, which isn't the case with a smartphone or tablet.
The curious thing with smart TVs is when down the line they become hosts for web services like Stadia and PWAs. Especially since the difference in cost between smart TVs and regular TVs keeps diminishing. Right now 40' 1080p smart TVs start at $200 at most retailers, while their traditional counterparts start at $180. And that is the normal price, which means that they will frequently be on sale for LESS than their non-smart counterparts. And app developers have every incentive to do PWAs. Right now mobile is easy: you only have to support iOS, Android and maybe KaiOS (what became of Firefox OS and has gotten quite a bit of traction in developing countries on phones that cost $35-$60 ... and incidentally its apps are all PWAs). But streaming? There are at least 8 major platforms all with tens of millions of devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Tizen, lgOS, Android TV, XBox, PlayStation. (Nintento has no plans to continue offering streaming channels on their consoles.) Doing a "write once run anywhere" PWA is going to become much preferable, especially when it comes to updates.
Apple Silicon is merely a BRAND and it is the brand name that is new. But the brand includes everything from the special purpose security and TouchBar/TouchID controller type chips in Macs to the S series chips in the Apple Watch to the A series chips in Apple TVs, iPads, iPhones and soon Macs. The branding is brilliant too because it tells people that every CPU in every Apple device is designed by Apple exclusively to be integrated with the hardware and operating systems in Apple products.
Come on, this is your brand so you should know this stuff already. I can get you being wrong about Android, Linux and Windows - which you pretty much always are - but at least get your own brand right.