Providing Market Intelligence for 40 Years

In The News

Roku OS Missing Features Explained: Discovery and Developer Limits

Roku's market position has a way of making the platform look more capable than it is. Across U.S. broadband households, Roku OS accounts for 28% of connected TV platform usage, ahead of Samsung Tizen at 23%, with Amazon Fire TV, LG webOS, and Vizio SmartCast trailing at a distance, according to Parks Associates research.    

Parks Associates Director Michael Goodman puts the stakes plainly: operating systems determine what content consumers see, how services are positioned, and how advertising is delivered. With AI-driven search and  personalization becoming the new competitive standard for TV operating systems, the firm argues that platform control will only matter more in the years ahead. This is the context in which Roku's specific shortcomings land.           

What they may not yet prove is that Roku has closed the gap on the deeper AI-driven discovery layer Parks Associates identifies as the next competitive frontier. The firm argues that AI-driven personalization, the kind that doesn't just catalog content but anticipates it, is where platform competition is heading. Roku's What to Watch feature aggregates titles across services, which is useful.

Roku's 28% share is stable and its value proposition is real. According to Parks Associates, the platform earns its position for a wide range of users, particularly those who primarily want free content, simple setup, and a reliable experience without active management. Nothing in this analysis changes that.

Parks Associates projects that AI-driven personalization will become the standard competitive axis for TV operating systems in the coming years, with platform ecosystems growing more consequential as that shift plays out.

From the Cord-Cutters.gadgethacks article, "Roku vs other smart TV platforms: default choice versus deliberate choice

Previously In The News

Top Smartwatch Daily Activities: Fitness Tracking, Notifications

The idea of consumers treating smartwatches as voice communication devices to make and receive phone calls hasn’t quite materialized. Rather, smartwatches are being used more as devices for activit...

Sony Goes All In on PlayStation

Sony has also been trying to make the PS4 a set-top box. Channel packages for its PlaySation Vue streaming-TV service start at $30 a month in some places and include programming from U.S. broadcast ne...

Can Samsung Kill Siri?

Today, 40% of smartphone owners already use digital assistants, according to a recent survey conducted by Parks Associates. Not surprising, millennials are most likely to partake (46%), but -- as the...

63% In U.S. Say They Are Not Aware Of Virtual Reality

The study from Parks Associates found that more than half (63%) of U.S. households say they are not familiar with or know nothing about VR. Younger generations appear to be more familiar with virtu...