Apple TV Shrinks in Popularity Ahead of Rumoured Refresh [Report]

Apple TV has lost some of its popularity in the US, a new report from Parks Associates reveals. While it is still among the popular media-streaming devices in the country, in 2014, the newly introduced Fire TV and Fire TV Stick turned out to be slightly more popular than the “old” Apple set-top box.

Roku still rocks the media-streaming device space, grabbing 34% of all units sold, followed by Google Chromecast, which accounted for 23% of all sales. As it turns out, the Amazon Fire TV made waves last year, surpassing Apple TV, which ranked third in 2013, before Amazon stepped into the market.

As Parks Associates points out in its annual report, combined, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Roku control 86% of all media-streaming device sales in the US. The report estimates that 86 million media-streaming devices will be sold globally by 2019.

According to its latest data, almost 20% of US broadband households own at least one media-streaming player; 8% own at least one streaming stick such as Google’s Chromecast, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick, or Roku’s HDMI Streaming Stick; and 2% own both.

A refresh of the Apple TV set-top box is long overdue. Rumour has it that we will see a new one unveiled next month, and it will feature Siri integration, a fresh design, possibly a new operating system, more storage, and a touch-based remote.