Roku Takes The Lead Over Apple TV In U.S. Media Streaming

There are a handful of media-streaming options to choose from. However, a new study suggests that 44% of U.S. households use Roku as their preferred streaming device.

Image: Google

Parks Associates, a market research firm, conducted a study showing that Apple TV falls far behind Roku, at only 26%. Competitors Netgear, Sony, Google TV, and WD TV are part of the remaining 30%.

Roku is growing in popularity and has increased by 7% in the past year, when it comes to household usage. A Parks Associate analyst, Barbara Kraus, said that this increase is partially because of an increased awareness of media streaming being a viable alternative to regular TV.

So why is Roku more popular than Apple? It appears that Roku has built a stronger brand image, according to Kraus. Roku is the creator of the first Netflix-streaming player; naturally users gravitate towards Netflix because they are known for being a top media-streaming provider. “It’s been more associated with Netflix, whereas Apple is still more associated with iTunes,” Kraus said.

Image: Google

You would think iPhone and iPad owners would want to also use Apple TV, along with their Apple products – but that isn’t what is happening. “Apple TV has historically been under-promoted and therefore not as much of a commodity: The device constitutes less than 1% of Apple’s total revenue.”

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Can Apple TV make a comeback and ever take first place? Kraus thinks so. Especially since Google and Amazon have thrown in the towel in the streaming realm. Now is the perfect time for Apple to step up its game. But it won’t be a walk in the park for Apple. Kraus said, “It’s going to be a very competitive market.”

According to the report, 25% of U.S households will own a streaming device by 2015.

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Source: Mashable