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Barbara Kraus, market research director at Parks Associates, said about a third of U.S. households with broadband Internet have smart TVs, a percentage expected to double by 2018.
But the top three smart-TV makers — Samsung Corp., Vizio Inc. and LG Electronics Inc. — all have their own operating systems, and analysts doubted that the companies would use Android TV.
Instead, Google said that it's Sony, Sharp Corp. and an overseas brand of Philips that plan to release displays that have Android TV and the slate of apps, such as Netflix, TuneIn and Showtime. According to Sony, using Android TV would let it focus on hardware development.
Asus Inc. and Carlsbad, Calif.-based gaming hardware maker Razer are making Android TV consoles that will compete with devices including Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. Such devices sit in a fifth of U.S. households with broadband Internet, Kraus said.
Android TV boxes also will have to live alongside Google Chromecast, a stick plugged into HDMI ports that display some apps from Android and iOS on a television. Kraus said 6% of U.S. households with broadband own Chromecast. All told, almost two-thirds of U.S. households with broadband have at least one TV-related device hooked up to the Internet.
Razer said its box would rival others because of a focus on gaming. Game apps draw some of the highest revenues among mobile apps, but analysts said it's to be seen whether people want to play those games on a big screen. Kraus' firm said about 11% of Roku users play "Angry Birds," but wider data weren't available.
From the article, "After initial flop, Google will try again to launch Android TV" by Paresh Dave.
