It's perhaps the most conspicuous sign yet that Comcast's bid to establish a gateway OS presence for smart TVs sold by major retailers has stalled.
Smart TVs branded and powered by the cable giant's XClass TV OS are currently listed as out of stock at their exclusive retail home, Walmart, and are unavailable for purchase during this Black Friday shopping period.
Also read: Has Comcast's XClass TV Drive Stalled Nearly One Year After Launch?
The 50- and 43-inch TVs, built by China's Hisense and introduced in October 2021, no longer surface in product searches on Walmart.com. A visit to the XClass TV landing page reveals that both models of XClass TV sets are sold out.
As they did in September, when we first noticed that XClass TV models had very low search priority on Walmart.com, Comcast reps didn't respond to inquiries for comment.
XClass TV is based on source code first established a decade ago with the release of Comcast's Xfinity X1 operating system for Comcast cable TV subscribers, and later the Xfinity Flex thin-client streaming devices the MSO gave away for free to its broadband-only customers.
Comcast has strategic plans to expand the OS out of its footprint and have it compete in the gateway OS smart TV market alongside Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Google TV, among other operating systems.
Comcast partnered with Walmart and Hisense 13 months ago to sell smart TVs based on this model. And earlier this year, it formed a joint venture with Charter Communications to manage XClass TV and other components of its streaming ventures. That JV was branded "Xumo TV" earlier this month.
XClass TV was mentioned in the press release announcing the Xumo TV moniker. However, neither Comcast or the JV has released any sales figures -- or any other data, for that matter -- on XClass TV since it made its Walmart debut.
