The arrival of Google’s Android TV platform has the potential to disrupt a landscape for streaming media players currently dominated by Roku and Apple TV.
New research from IHS says the impending arrival of Android TV will potentially equip lesser players and vendors with access to a complete, ready-made platform for streaming-media-player use that delivers a suite of benefits.
These include a new user experience purposely designed for TV, content access from Google Play as well as third-party apps, Google-powered content search and discovery with voice recognition, integration with the Android mobile device ecosystem, and built-in Chromecast functionality that enables media casting.
All this will add to a market already shifting tens of millions of units every year.
“Given the ongoing shift among consumers toward streaming media consumption, the market for standalone streaming media players is continuing to heat up,” said Paul Erickson, senior analyst for the connected home at IHS. “Today Roku and Apple TV continue to dominate the U.S. installed base for streaming media players, with a combined 94 percent share in 2013, and Amazon’s Fire TV is a significant recent entrant. However, the arrival of Android TV is expected to significantly affect the competitive dynamics of this market over the long run.”
The global installed base for streaming media players is forecast to reach 50 million units by the end of this year. The installed base in the United States, the most significant single market globally for the product category, will amount to 24 million units this year, up from 16 million last year and 10 million in 2012.