Google’s Chromecast streaming adapter topped the media streamer market in the third quarter of 2015 on a global basis, Strategy Analytics found in a new study.
About 9.2 million devices were shipped in Q3 in the category. As the chart shows, Google Chromecast was tops, with a 35% share of the market, followed by the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.
The latest numbers come in amid the launch of new products from each compan heading into the holiday buying season.
Strategy Analytics noted that global shipments of all connected TV devices, including smart TV, Blu-ray players, game consoles and streaming players, reached 53 million units in Q3, and are on target to reach 221 million units for all of 2015. That’s a growth rate of 17%, the firm said.
On the smart TV front, Samsung is outpacing LG and Sony, and now accounts for about 25% of all smart TVs in use worldwide. However, Philips, Sony and Sharp have recently jumped in with TVs powered by the new Android TV platform, which captured between 8% to 10% of the market in Q3 2015, Strategy Analytics found.
Sony, meanwhile, shipped more than double the number of gaming consoles as Microsoft in the period, though the Xbox One “is expected to close the gap on the PS4 during the final quarter thanks to its appealing 1st and 3rd party bundles.”
“Despite the growing penetration of integrated Smart TVs, Digital Media Streamers such as Chromecast and Fire TV continue to prove popular with consumers thanks to their low cost and effectiveness at bridging the gap between the Internet and the TV screen,” David Watkins, services director at Strategy Analytics’s Connected Home Devices service unit said, in a statement. “While the long term viability of such devices will be threatened by advancements in Smart TV technology, they are currently acting as significant components in Apple, Google and Amazon’s fast evolving TV and video ecosystems.”
“The growing adoption of Connected TV Devices in the home proves that the living room TV screen is still the dominant medium for consuming TV and video content,” added Chirag Upadhyay, the division’s senior research analyst. “The collective viewing experience cannot be replicated on a smartphone or tablet and so we expect the ‘connected TV screen’ to remain a focal point of homes in the future”.
