Half a Billion Connected TV Devices But Fragmentation is Increasing

Boston, Mass., October 3, 2014-- The latest research from Strategy Analytics' Connected Home Devices team, the Global Connected TV Device Tracker, shows that the number of connected TV devices installed globally reached just short of 500 million devices in Q2 2014, an increase of 7% over Q1. The research covers all connected TV devices such as smart TVs, smart blu-ray disc players, games consoles and digital media streamers.

The market is becoming increasingly fragmented: Today the top six brands account for 72% of the installed base; two years ago it was 85%. This reflects the fact that newcomers are joining the market all the time, Google’s Chromecast being one of the more prominent recent entries. It also results from the fact that the early days of connected TV were dominated by games consoles. But as smart TVs and digital media streamers have become widespread the share of consoles in the installed base has fallen from 95% to just over a third in the past four years.

While we inevitably hear a lot about newcomers like Google and Amazon, and long-time player Apple, the market leaders are traditional vendors Sony and Samsung. Sony accounts for nearly a quarter of installed connected TV devices, although its share has been falling slowly for a couple of years. Samsung has only recently become the number two player, passing Microsoft and Nintendo.

Google, Amazon and Apple have minor shares on a global basis but are clearly ones to watch as they evolve their connected TV strategies. Strategy Analytics  will also be watching for some level of platform consolidation around Android, which is likely to become one of the important stories during 2015.