- Roku leads the market in the number of connected TV users in the United States, according to new research from eMarketer.
- The research firm estimates that 38.9M users will use a Roku at least once a month this year, which comes in above the 36.9M for Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Chromecast and 35.8M for Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Fire TV.
- Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) TV comes in at the back of the pack with 21.3m.
- Paul Verna, eMarketer’s principal video analyst, cites Roku’s neutrality as its primary tailwind. The company doesn’t have any ties to specific content or TV device platforms and can form content partnerships more easily.
- A fight between Amazon and Apple kept the former’s app off the latter’s TV until this year, which might have hurt Apple’s share of the streaming market.
- Google and Amazon also have the advantage of integrated their voice assistants into the streaming device, which could drive up the user base as smart home solutions become more popular.
- The research firm isn’t optimistic about Apple TV’s chances, predicting the company will add less than 4M users by 2021 compared to the 20M to 30M net adds by the competition.
- Now read: Amazon: My Pre-Earnings Thoughts
Original article