14% of Households Use Streaming Media Devices, Roku More Popular Than Apple TV

[DesterWallaboo]

The ATV has many problems, in my opinion: the remote, although sleek, is too small and has a limited number of buttons (there isn't even a sleep or power button!)

Hold down the 'play' button for a few seconds.... voila! ATV goes to sleep.

 

[ziggie216]

I was debating between Roku 3 or wait for the new AppleTV (already have AppleTV 3 for the living room). Not having Amazon doesnt both me too much considering most of the movies and TV shows on there are freaking old. Roku 3 is cheaper but doesnt have AirPlay. Decisions decisions...

 

[RaelFacio]

I wanted the Apple TV, but needed to be able to connect to a standard RCA (yellow, red, white) that is on most of my televisions. The only flat screen TV that we have is connected to an XBox and Wii which are used for accessing Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Within six months we will have two new game consoles. The XBox One and the PlayStation 4 which will be used for streaming and for watching DVD's which I still prefer to purchase. I just received from Amazon today The Beatles Blueray and standard DVD disks for Help, Yellow Submarine and A Hard Days Night.

There are at least 12 iTunes gift cards sitting around the house that are not being redeemed because we prefer to buy our music on CD's and movies on disk rather than download digital copies.

We did rent "Drinking Buddies" through iTunes this past weekend and watched it on an iMac.

One last tangent. Many of my family members and coworkers DVR the movies or TV shows that they are interested in watching. Recording for them outweighs streaming, renting or downloading. Most of them watch a show or movie maybe one additional time, then delete it.

 

[Carlanga]

You're kidding me right? Does anyone even know anything about statistics? A 10k sample is more than enough to represent something like this in statistical value. You get a smaller sample for more precise things like politics, and they even consider that to be a good size. 10k doesn't need to be 330 million if it accurately represents the demographic. That's the whole point of statistics.

Stop trying to bad mouth the results, because if you and other people haven't realized, Roku is actually a better product. Many people want to like the ATV more, but they don't. I'm sure in a few years apple will actually take the time to develop the product. But until then it is going to have to settle for second place. And we'll see where Google's Chromecast comes into play in a few months

I know statistics, step off your high horse. This doesn't represent the demographic, hell just look at overall sales of each of them and you will realize this survey was not done properly nor it makes sense. Is like going to a red state town and surveying them and the news guy tells you that the red guy is supposed to win nationwide due to the survey on that town... If they were really going to do 10K properly for a nationwide assumption statistically speaking they would have to waste a boatload of resources just to get maybe 200 or less at various places and for that they would have just made their sample size bigger and have more stat. power for a small cost since the infrastructure is what would cost more.

Roku is not the better product, nor is the aTV, they both have their deficiencies and is up to the person that buys them to decide which one to get since each one has unique features that the other doesn't have.

 

[E.Lizardo]

I could see Roku being more popular simply because it doesn't "seem" to be dependent upon other hardware/software products, i.e. iTunes, Apple media libraries, etc.

Why did you put the word "seem"in quotes?

 

[richman555]

I love my 2 Apple TVs. I have well over 100 movies and tv episodes purchased in iTunes and an MLB subscription. I use it every day.

 

[Dulcimer]

Hold down the 'play' button for a few seconds.... voila! ATV goes to sleep.

Yes, but I've noticed that it doesn't work all the time for some odd reason. Even then, holding down one of those buttons sucks with that remote.

 

[JamesInLA]

From the report:
"37% primarily use a Roku compared to 24% that primarily use an Apple TV."

That's 39% that they don't tell us what they are using. Since there isn't a huge "other" market here in the US, exactly what is making up the other 39%, but isn't making up enough to be worth noting in their report? 3 vendors equally splitting that would have 13% each. I imagine XBox is up there, but this report was done prior to the Chrome dongle. Any other ideas?

Plenty of options:
Tivo
Cable/satellite box
Computer - Laptop, HTPC, etc.
Playstation
XBox
Wii
Connected Blu-Ray player
Other streaming boxes (WD, Boxee, whatever)

 

[GSPice]

Why did you put the word "seem"in quotes?

Because although other apple hardware complements it nicely, you are able to buy and rent with an account on the atv without other hardware.

 

[JamesInLA]

And chronecast is off to a big start. I ordered a day after and still haven't received it.

I love how poor production and distribution is now taken as an indication of success.

"They're sold out! There's a three-week backlog! Everybody must be buying one!"

 

[JamesInLA]

Survey basis seems to be a little off. To date Roku has sold approximately 5 million units, while AppleTV has sold over 13 million units.... A survey is only as good as it's population but the raw number's seem to show some holes in this one. Every AppleTV owner I know (and it's a good number) use theirs for streaming. I also own both, and like others use the Roku for Amazon, but prefer Apple's interface and easy of use, and use the AppleTV for the vast majority of my streaming usage.

Apple doesn't appear to have released an actual sales total for Apple TVs, but the number you quote appears to be a consensus estimate of global sales of the device.

The 5 million figure for Roku appears to be U.S.-only, which is the population the survey is sampling.

 

[W1LLk]

Roku More Popular Than Apple TV

Really? I know I don't speak for everyone, and that I'm just one person... but I don't know a single person with a Roku. I know several people with Apple TVs, including myself. I even have a friend who is a die hard Android fanboy, but still prefers the AppleTV and just picked up the Chromecast.

 

[benpatient]

Really? I know I don't speak for everyone, and that I'm just one person... but I don't know a single person with a Roku. I know several people with Apple TVs, including myself. I even have a friend who is a die hard Android fanboy, but still prefers the AppleTV and just picked up the Chromecast.

hi, meet me.

all of the computers in our house are macs.

i have 2 rokus and a chromecast. i had an apple tv in the past. gave it away because no plex and no amazon instant and no component output.

now you know somebody who owns a roku. twice!

It's not as slick, but that doesn't really matter. A streaming device's interface has 2 jobs: get you to the media you want to stream, and get out of the way. It doesn't matter at all how shiny the screen is when you are navigating to the media. Roku 3 boots in like 15 seconds (not that it is ever turned off, so it's really more like zero seconds), opens netflix or plex or amazon in 1 second, and gets me to my queue 3-5 seconds later. Then a second or two of buffering, and i'm watching HD video on my tv. the only time i see the interface is when i pause it, and i don't care how shiny the pause icon is. It's certainly not worth the trade-offs.

 

[Jcknows0]

I have both 1 Roku, and and 2 Apple TVs. I wish I had 3 Rokus instead. Plex alone is such an amazing application worth buying the Roku for. Thanks to Apple's closed environment they're leaving themselves behind not allowing people to build Apps for the ATV. Apple's belief in not building cross platform is also a self-stabber.

It's probably never going to happen, but if they built apps for Android, they would open the door, allowing other mobile devices to control their hardware. I don't have an iPhone anymore, and I can't control my Apple TV, unless I buy some hacked app to talk to it or use the Apple TV's crappy remote, and there's no way I'm typing with it. Roku however, built apps for multiple platforms to control it's device.

I'm sure Apple will be allowing apps as soon as aTV is a full set top box or all in one 4k TV. I totally agree about Plex selling the Roku but for BluRay movie streaming I AirPlay my macmini screen for optimal quality. I think Apple is going to revolutionize the whole market as part of Steve's final declaration. I don't know if this is the year but it definitely seems like a 4Q game changer just in time before the TV market changes next year

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Hold down the 'play' button for a few seconds.... voila! ATV goes to sleep.

Thanks for the tip!

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I was debating between Roku 3 or wait for the new AppleTV (already have AppleTV 3 for the living room). Not having Amazon doesnt both me too much considering most of the movies and TV shows on there are freaking old. Roku 3 is cheaper but doesnt have AirPlay. Decisions decisions...

Combining my iPad with my AppleTV allows me to stream from several sources, and not be limited to what the AppleTV offers.
I really love my AppleTV, soon will get another one.

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Yes, but I've noticed that it doesn't work all the time for some odd reason. Even then, holding down one of those buttons sucks with that remote.

You are holding it wrong

 

[6749974]

Yes, but I've noticed that it doesn't work all the time for some odd reason. Even then, holding down one of those buttons sucks with that remote.

To put your ATV to sleep go to the main menu, THEN hold down the play button for 2-3 seconds. I do this every day, multiple times a day. It works.

Also, to jump straight to the menu, hold the menu button for 2-3 seconds, then select Main Menu. You may need to enable that feature in Accessibility (settings).

So now, to put your ATV to sleep from anywhere you hold Menu for 2 seconds, go to Menu, then hold Play for 2 seconds.

It's much simpler than reading it would seem, I assure you.

 

[xVeinx]

I've been pretty happy with my ATV. My roommate and I can watch any of the movies/TV episodes on my iMac, and have easy enough access to Netflix and YouTube. We have had intermittent issues with connections to our iPhones which we sometimes use to control the ATV, but those have gone away for the most part after subsequent updates.

 

[zephonic]

I'm on the verge of rushing out to BestBuy and get either a Roku 2XD or AppleTV.
I like the Roku better, but I primarily want one so I can use our TV as an extra screen for my '13 MacBookAir. Can it do that?

We already do Netflix and Amazon instant view on the Wii, so that is not as critical, even though the Wii does not do HD.

 

[charlituna]

A survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households

That is embarrassing. That low a number is likely totally unsound

 

[HVDynamo]

I'm on the verge of rushing out to BestBuy and get either a Roku 2XD or AppleTV.
I like the Roku better, but I primarily want one so I can use our TV as an extra screen for my '13 MacBookAir. Can it do that?

I think it only supports mirroring of the display right now, but they are adding the feature to use it as a separate monitor in Mavericks. I am looking forward to this feature as well.

 

[iMikeT]

My TV collects dust simply because I'm never in my living room. If I had an TV in my bedroom or home office I'd use it all the time.

 

[Macist]

Apple TV 3 is the most anaemic product, especially outside the US where important TV services are just missing. Without an App Store and no jailbreak it's useless.

Apple TV 2 was great as you could install XBMC to make it useful.

I use a Raspberry Pi with XBMC, though as not everything in the XBMC universe runs on it may build a small PC or get more powerful ARM board soon. Even as is it wipes the floor with Apple TV 3.

 

[r3m1]

Apple TV 3 is the most anaemic product, especially outside the US where important TV services are just missing. Without an App Store and no jailbreak it's useless.

Apple TV 2 was great as you could install XBMC to make it useful.

I use a Raspberry Pi with XBMC, though as not everything in the XBMC universe runs on it may build a small PC or get more powerful ARM board soon. Even as is it wipes the floor with Apple TV 3.

XBMC is sweet -and luckily more options are presenting itself to run it - I get the feeling a lot of "old" PS3 will be rebuild to XBMC machines - just like what happend with the XBOX1.

 

[JamesInLA]

That is embarrassing. That low a number is likely totally unsound

You're kidding, right? A national random sample of 10,000 gives you a margin of error of about +/- 1%, at the 95% confidence level (as is typically reported for national election polls, for example).

A sample one-fourth that size would give you a margin of error of about 2%.

It's plenty big enough.

 

[macs4nw]

.....A survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households revealed that 37% used a Roku device while 24% used an Apple TV, making Roku the most used streaming set-top box in the U.S.

So, because 10,000 households have roku over Apple TV... that makes Roku the most used streaming box in the US?! Last time I checked, there's a lot more than 10,000 households in the the US. You should do a larger survey before you announce Roku as the winner.

Statistically speaking, that is a fairly significant sample.