Parks Associates Study on Why Amazon, Google and Roku updated Hardware beating Apple TV

“The market consolidation around these four brands forces new entrants to develop more creative features and functionality to tap into the strong consumer demand for streaming content. Devices with additional functionality such as the Intel Compute Stick may be a sign of things to come, where streaming is not the primary function but an extra feature to provide additional value.”

Parks Associates Director of Research Barbara Kraus commenting on the results of a study on Streaming in the US of A 

Nobody knows for sure what Apple has in store for us come Wednesday September 9^th 2015 despite my predictions in my Geezam blog article entitled “Apple Event on September 9th 2015 – AI Siri, iPhone 6S, Apple TV and Pro iPad”. 

One thing for sure, though, the Apple TV is in need of a serious hardware upgrade, having not gotten one for the past three (3) years as opined in the article “The next Apple TV: What to expect”, published August 31, 2015, CNET News.

This as they're now 4^th in terms of popularity according to market research firm Parks Associates as reported in the article “Study: Apple TV falls to 4th place behind Roku, Google and Amazon”, published August 23, 2015 By Mike Flacy, Digitaltrends.

What’s more, market research firm Parks Associates is predicting total sales of Streaming devices to reach 86 million by 2019.

This is based on their survey titled The Streaming Media Device Landscape Report published in the article “Amazon, Apple, Google, and Roku dominate streaming media device market with 86% of sales” covering the usage of Streaming devices in 2014.

So what exactly does their The Streaming Media Device Landscape Report say?

Parks Associates says Apple now 4^th in Streaming - Why Amazon, Google and Roku update Hardware beating Apple TV

According to their survey, the four (4) most popular Streaming devices in American households are in the order as follows:

1.      Roku

2.      Google

3.      Amazon

4.      Apple

Not surprising, as Roku has been touting sales of 10 million since September 2014 on their Roku blog as detailed in my blog article entitled “10 million Roku Streaming Devices sold - Roku still King of Streaming as Google, Amazon and Apple unable to beat Baked in Surprise”.

It was since then that Apple TV was in trouble, holding on to third place. This is clearly no longer the case as according to the graph from Parks Associates, Apple has slipped to fourth place.

What’s more, these four (4) account for 86% of all Streaming devices, be it on Streaming Set Top Box or Streaming Sticks sold in the US of A.

The Parks Associates article is sparse on words, as you have to purchase The Streaming Media Device Landscape Report but the following stats stand out readily:

1.      20% of U.S. broadband households own at least one Streaming Set Top Box

2.      8% own at least one Streaming stick

3.      2% own both a Set Top Box and a Streaming stick

Having purchased a Streaming Set Top Box or a Streaming stick isn't a big deal; it could be lying around your house in a drawer unused. So what are the usage numbers like?

Apple is Third in terms of actual usage - Apple Event may reveal upgraded Apple TV

Usage numbers are the real stats gold mine and for that The Streaming Media Device Landscape Report has us covered:

1.      37% of households actively use their Roku Streaming device

2.      19% of households actively use their Google Chromecast

3.      17% of households actively use their Apple TV

4.      14% of households actively use their Amazon Fire TV

So Apple definately has to come with the goods such as a Processor and Memory upgrade, a TV subscription service, 4K Support and integration into Apple Homekit Ecosystem as opined in my MICO Wars Blog article entitled “How Apple Magic Mouse and the Wireless Keyboard are being upgraded”.  

Can't wait until 10am PST on Wednesday September 9^th 2015 when Apple will lay their cards on the table and all will be revealed at the San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Auditorium!

Here's the link:

The Streaming Media Device Landscape Report

Amazon, Apple, Google, and Roku dominate streaming media device market with 86% of sales

Parks Associates