Roku Inc. today disclosed preliminary Q4 2018 data for two key operating metrics, active accounts and streaming hours, demonstrating continued momentum for the Roku platform as consumers shift toward streaming and away from traditional linear TV. The company made the disclosures ahead of business meetings at CES 2019 this week in Las Vegas.
Q4 2018 active accounts topped 27 million, up roughly 40% year-over-year. Q4 streaming hours were an estimated 7.3 billion hours, up about 68% year-over-year, bringing full year 2018 streaming hours to about 24 billion, up about 61% from 2017.
“Strong active account growth and accelerating streaming hours point to consumers’ growing enthusiasm for streaming, making Roku America’s largest and fastest growing TV streaming distribution platform,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood in a statement. “In 2018, we maintained our leadership in streaming players, licensed smart TVs and TV streaming hours. Roku continues to bring viewers more choice, great value, a compelling user experience – and lots of TV fun.”
Source: Roku Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: 27 million strikes us as rather underwhelming, actually.
Not to mention that, even if you use Apple TV’s embarrassingly awful Siri remote (as opposed to the rather good Apple Remote app for Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad):
(Trying) to use a Roku device after an Apple TV is like trying to drive a Toyota Yaris after a BMW M5. It sucks in very possible way. — MacDailyNews, January 2, 2019
Sleep tight, Roku.
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Uh, sorry, but I disagree. The ROKU interface, and remote is miles above and beyond ATV.
Plus ATV is an utter waste. Apple late to the party as usual.
… can’t I find a movie I want to rent in iTunes and put it in my wish list on the Apple TV? I seems like all of my Apple products synchronize and interact except for the Apple TV.
Why indeed.
Perhaps because Apple lost their GUI handbook about a decade ago. They erred massively by letting Ive ever touch the GUI, and it’s still not recovered. Instead of always showing the user a customizable toolbar, the user has to learn with each app what to do, and how.
Apple thinks people are supposed to just swipe in 4 different directions to get to the command he really wants. Or punch little tiny hamburger icons to find out what is underneath it — if anything. Depending on the app, some settings are hidden there, and other settings are relegated only to the Apple preference pane, and others you have to find the disappearing slider pane.
It’s way too confusing and time wasting for people who want a natural intuitive interface. Apple might offer help, one would think. But no, you can’t find a help button with useful info. Apple outsourced that to youtube and bloggers a decade ago too.
With iOSification, Apple thinks its Mac users are also going to learn sign language with a myriad of finger guess-tures on the touchpad. Guess what, people don’t want to memorize them, and they don’t want an ever-changing gimmick bar. Screens are bigger than ever, the user should have every command available and visible on screen without burying the command 5 layers deep.
Then to top them all off is the voice mess of an interface that is Siri. That’s a godawful mess that isn’t getting better.
Seriously, some of the least intuitive interfaces today are found on Apple products. But you would have to actually try other excellent products like Roku to know so.
Agreed, and this is not new insight. As you say, the UI handbook went in the trash some years back, and we’re all poorer for it.
App designers had problems with certain aspects of the design requirements, and rightly so. Some apps functionality really required a departure from the standards and Apple made that difficult. There was of course an opportunity to find the happy medium, but Apple decided to drop the reins instead and now even their own OS/app suite don’t cohere.
I have a bunch of Roku TVs and a bunch of Apple TVs.
I prefer the AppleTV interface, but the Roku is fine.