Shipments of smart TVs powered by Android TV and its predecessor TVOS, Google TV, have more than doubled since the beginning of 2019, accounting for only 10% of the market to a current level of more than 20%, according to research company Omdia.
At a presentation delivered last week ahead of the IFA conference in Berlin (and covered by FlatpanelsHD.com), Omdia analyst Paul Gray called the European smart TVOS market a three-horse race between Google, LG and its webOS software, and Samsung's Tizen.
The analyst even described Android TV's proliferation as a "consistent growth story."
In North America, Roku remains the dominant TVOS natively installed into smart TVs, followed by Amazon Fire TV. But based on expanded product availability, Google appears to be gaining ground here, as well.
More than 90% of the smart TVs shipped globally now include a native TVOS vs. only around 80% back in 2019, Omdia said.
Gray added that the global smart TV market is entering its "third streaming wave" -- not only are video streaming pucks and dongles being displaced by smart TVs with natively installed TVOS, but cloud gaming capabilities on these smart TVs now threaten the viability of external gaming consoles such as Xbox and PlayStation, as well. ■
