BOSTON—Global smartphone shipments fell 9% in Q3, 2022 compared to a year earlier but Apple had a strong quarter, boosting its share of the global business to 16%, the highest level in 12 years, Strategy Analytics reports.

Strategy Analytics is also predicting global smartphone shipments to decline by 9% to 10% for all of 2022. 

As global smartphone shipments fell 297 million units in Q3 2022, Samsung topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 22% share in Q3 2022 and Apple landed in second place, with Xiaomi, OPPO (including OnePlus) and vivo rounding out the top five smartphone providers. 

“Global smartphone shipments fell -9% YoY to 297 million units in Q3 2022,” said Linda Sui, senior director at Strategy Analytics. “This is the fifth consecutive quarter of annual decline by smartphone volumes. Inventory adjustments and geopolitical issues adversely impacted smartphone market in the third quarter of this year. Meanwhile, unfavorable economic conditions continued to weaken consumers’ demand on smartphones and other non-essential products.”

“We estimate Samsung shipped 64 million smartphones and topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 22% share in Q3 2022,” added Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics. “It slightly outperformed the total market and declined -7% YoY by shipment volumes. Demand tilted towards low- cost A and M series, while the newly launched Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 help the company strengthen the leadership in foldable segment. Apple shipped 49 million iPhones worldwide, up +6% YoY, for 16% global market share in Q3 2022. This is the highest third quarter market share for Apple over the past twelve years, at the expense of leading Chinese brands who are hampered by the sluggish performance in both home and overseas market. Apple had a good quarter, led by newly launched iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, while the demand for iPhone 14 remained mixed.”

“Xiaomi shipped 40.5 million smartphones and took third place with nearly 14% global market share in Q3 2022, slightly up from one year ago,” reported Yiwen Wu, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. “Xiaomi outperformed other major Chinese brands and registered -8% annual decline rate, thanks to the well diversified regional footprint. However, Xiaomi continued suffering from the geopolitical uncertainties in Europe. China and India market also delivered a mixed bag for the Chinese brand. OPPO (OnePlus) held fourth spot and captured 10% global smartphone market share during Q3 2022. Vivo stayed fifth with 9% global smartphone market share in Q3 2022. OPPO (OnePlus) and Vivo both posted a double digit annual decline rate and lost ground in most markets, as 4G and 5G competition intensified sharply in China and other markets.”

Looking forward, Sui said, “we forecast global smartphone shipments to decline -9% to -10% YoY in full-year 2022. Geopolitical issues, economy downturn, energy shortage and price hike, exchange rate volatility, and Covid disruption will continue to weaken consumer demand during the last quarter of 2022. All these headwinds would continue through the first half of next year, before the situation eases in the second half of 2023. Samsung and Apple would continue to outperform and remain top two places. Chinese brands need to stabilize the performance in China market and explore new growth engine to terminate the falling track.”

BOSTON—While the ongoing semiconductor shortage continues to pose problems for a wide range of tech companies, Strategy Analytics is predicting an easing of the semiconductor shortage for wireless telecommunications companies. 

In the new Strategy Analytics RF & Wireless Components service report, “The Impact of the Semiconductor Shortage on Wireless Telecoms,” the researchers note that wireless telecommunications has escaped the worst effects of the semiconductor shortage, and that semiconductors for cellular infrastructure equipment will continue to dodge significant shortages going forward. 

In addition, availability of chips for Wi-Fi access points and cellular phones will continue to improve through next year, the company reported. 

“Tight supplies of semiconductors will gradually ease through the remainder of 2022 into 2023 as new foundry capacity comes online,” explained Christopher Taylor, director of the Strategy Analytics RF & Wireless Components service. “For example, China increased its production of semiconductors by more than 17 percent in 2021, and production expansion in China will accelerate this year helping to ease the global shortage. Semiconductor investments in the U.S., EU, S. Korea, India, and other countries have also started to bear fruit, with the most significant capacity expansions due to start in 2023.”

Stephen Entwistle, vice president of strategic technologies at Strategy Analytics, added that “Despite temporary rolling COVID-19 lockdowns in some countries, better control of the pandemic will reduce the rates of new pandemic cases through the remainder of 2022. This will help in the expansion of staffing at semiconductor and electronics production plants and stabilize consumer demand for wireless products.”

BOSTON—The ripple effects of the Covid pandemic continues to impact the tablet market and produced some surprising results in Q1 2022, according to a new report by Strategy Analytics. 

It reports that while vendors wrestle with supply constraints and logistical issues also stemming from the pandemic, strong demand for tablets continues and Samsung, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple all saw impressive growth rates in Q1 2022. 

A better than expected start to 2022 may be short-lived however, as COVID restrictions in China, additional logistic and inflationary pressures, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine all threaten to hold back supply going forward, Strategy Analytics cautioned via its Computing Devices (CCD) service and its new report “Preliminary Global Tablet Shipments and Market Share: Q1 2022.” 

“Tablet demand never really went away despite shipment declines for the last three quarters,” said Eric Smith, director – Connected Computing. “This has all been about vendors managing the twin challenges of persistent demand and supply constraints. Samsung, Amazon, and Microsoft pulled off great quarters given all the macro-level challenges with fresh portfolios and strong distribution strategies. Apple’s recovery from the supply constraints of last quarter was equally impressive as they actually grew shipments sequentially. That’s unheard of in this business, but with more disruptive factors at play, we should come to expect the unexpected.”

Chirag Upadhyay, industry analyst added, “Android tablet market share is at a new low of 50%, but competition has heated up among Android vendors looking to grab market share from Huawei’s smaller device footprint as well as the fast-shrinking white box market. Lenovo has been growing for more than two years with this strategy but Xiaomi, Honor, realme, OPPO, and even Nokia have recently jumped into the tablet market, creating new dynamics in mainland China and a handful of markets in south Asia, southeast Asia, and Europe.”

Apple iPadOS shipments (sell-in) fell -6% year-on-year to 15.8 million units in Q1 2022, with worldwide market share climbing 1.7 percentage points to 39% as the vendor outpaced the market, the researchers reported. 

Compared to the holiday quarter when Apple was severely supply-constrained, shipments were actually 1% higher quarter-on-quarter

Samsung led the Android market with only a -1.2% year-on-year decline in Q1 2022 to 8.2 million units; market share increased by 1.8 percentage points to 20% during the same period

Amazon was right behind Samsung growth-wise with a -1.3% annual decline with 3.7 million shipments; market share grew 0.8 percentage points to 9%

Lenovo tablet shipments fell once again after two years of growth but the company retained its #4 ranking globally as competition has heated up from smaller Chinese vendors; Lenovo shipments declined -20% year-on-year to 3.0 million units in Q1 2022 and market share fell -0.9 percentage point year-on-year to 7%

For the second quarter in a row, Microsoft broke into the #5 ranking globally in Q1 2022 with 1.4 million tablets shipped at a 1% annual growth rate; it was the only vendor in the top five to show growth. Market share increased by 0.4 percentage points to 3%

BOSTON—According to new research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments fell 3% to 365 million units in Q4 2021, compared to a year earlier, and the Apple iPhone topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 22% share in Q4 2021.

For the full year, however, smartphone shipments to 1.36 billion units in 2021, up 5% compared to 2020, and Samsung remained in first place with 20% share in full-year 2021.

Linda Sui, senior director at Strategy Analytics, noted that “factory constraints and component shortages continued to restrict smartphone supply in the final quarter of last year. Full-year smartphone shipments rose 5% YoY to 1.36 billion units in 2021, recovering from a sharp Covid-led decline of 8% YoY during 2020.”

Woody Oh, director at Strategy Analytics, added that “Apple shipped 80 million iPhones and topped the global smartphone market with a healthy 22% share in Q4 2021. Demand was strong for the new iPhone 13 series in China and other markets. Samsung shipped 69 million smartphones, up 12% YoY, for 19% global market share in Q4 2021. Samsung had a good quarter, led by its innovative Flip and Fold 5G models. Samsung grew faster than all its major rivals. Samsung ramped up volumes in North and South America amid the withdrawal of LG, however the competition in Asia remained fierce. Samsung maintained first place for full-year 2021, with 20% global smartphone market share, followed by Apple in second spot.”

Xiaomi shipped 45 million smartphones and took third place with 12% global market share in Q4 2021, up slightly from 11% a year ago, the researchers noted, benefitting from the withdrawal of Huawei and LG and expanded its retail footprint into all major regions last year. 

OPPO (OnePlus) held the fourth spot and captured 9% global smartphone market share during Q4 2021. Vivo stayed fifth with 8% global smartphone market share in Q4 2021. OPPO (OnePlus) and Vivo both lost ground in the final quarter of last year, as 5G competition from Honor and other smartphone competitors intensified sharply at home in China, the company said. 

In terms of 2022, Linda Sui, senior director at Strategy Analytics, said that “We forecast global smartphone shipments to grow a mild 3% YoY in full-year 2022. This year will be a tale of two halves. Component shortages, price inflation, and Covid uncertainty will continue to weigh on the smartphone market during the first half of 2022, before the situation eases in the second half due to Covid vaccines, interest rate rises by central banks, and less supply disruption at factories.”

BOSTON—New research from Strategy Analytics finds that Samsung was the top smartphone vendor in North America in Q3 2021 narrowly beating out Apple for the top spot. 

Both Samsung and Apple grew their market share during the quarter. 

The data, which is important for media companies developing apps and digital products, showed that the Top-5 smartphone vendors by shipments for the region captured 93% of total shipments to the region. 

The shipment numbers also showed that consumers are increasingly slow in upgrading their phones. North American smartphone shipments were down 7% annually in the third quarter of 2021 compared to a year earlier.

Samsung led in North American smartphone shipments with a 38% market share, followed by Apple (37%) and Motorola (10%). 

All three vendors showed gains in the quarter, in part because LG has shuttered its smartphone unit. Both Samsung and Apple grew their market share by five percentage points while Motorola saw a two percentage point increase.  

“Samsung is the leading smartphone vendor in North America, with annual shipment growth of 5 percent,” says Ken Hyers, director at Strategy Analytics. “Samsung has clawed back share following three quarters when it was topped by Apple. Samsung has capitalized on the collapse of LG, which in the year-ago quarter held a 14 percent share in the North American region but has shuttered operations from Q3 2021. The combination of leading technology and a broad product portfolio have made Samsung smartphones, such as its premium Galaxy S21 series and affordable A-series the most popular Android devices in the region.”

“Apple captured 2nd place in smartphone shipments in the North America region in Q3 2021,” added Linda Sui, senior director at Strategy Analytics. “Apple’s newly introduced iPhone 13 5G smartphones drove a late Q3 2021 surge in shipments, which along with its older iPhone 12 models drove positive annual growth of 9 percent annually in the 3rd quarter of 2021. Apple’s growth would have been even stronger were it not for component shortages and manufacturing disruption in Asia that limited its ability to meet demand for its new iPhone 13 series smartphones.”

“Samsung also faced shortages that limited its ability to meet strong customer demand,” noted Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics. “Samsung’s newest foldable smartphones, the Galaxy Flip3 and Fold3 were very strong sellers for the company. In fact, the Flip3 barely missed being its 5th best-selling smartphone in North America in Q3 2021, held back only by the company’s inability to produce as many of the devices as customers wanted, due to component shortages. Samsung expects a big quarter in Q4 2021 for its foldables with major promotions planned for Black Friday in North America which it predicts will fuel strong sales of the Flip3 and Fold3.”

BOSTON—It has taken 27 years since the launch of the first smartphone, but new research from Strategy Analytics reports that half the world’s population owned a smartphone in June 2021, when about 4 billion people used one. 

“We estimate the global smartphone user base has risen dramatically from just 30k people in 1994 to 1.00 billion in 2012, and a record 3.95 billion today in June 2021,” explained Yiwen Wu, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. “With an estimated 7.90 billion people in total on the planet in June 2021, it means 50% of the whole world now owns a smartphone. It has taken 27 years to reach this historic milestone.”

Linda Sui, senior director at Strategy Analytics, added that the world’s first modern smartphone, IBM Simon, was launched commercially in the United States in 1994. This was followed by other famous models, such as the Nokia 9110 Communicator in 1998 and Ericsson R380 for Europe in 2000, she explained. “Apple iPhone popularized the smartphone in 2007, while Google Android democratized the smartphone with an affordable software platform from 2008,” she added. 

But the rapid takeup of smartphones is slowing. The company is predicting that 5 billion people will be using smartphones worldwide by 2030. 

Details about the full report, “Half the World Owns a Smartphone,” are available here.

BOSTON—A new report challenges the commonly held assumption that the explosive growth in consumer broadband internet traffic will continue at the breakneck speeds seen in recent years. 

The report from Strategy Analytics finds that while fixed broadband traffic will continue to grow, the rate of that growth will slow down in upcoming years, with the annual growth rate declining by about 82% between 2018 and 2028. 

If correct, that projection would have a major impact on telcos and cable operators who have seen making massive investments in their networks to accommodate streaming traffic and a healthy bump in new broadband subs, more than 1 million in Q1 2021 alone, according to the Leichtman Research Group.

To handle the widespread consumer embrace of streaming media and other broadband technologies, U.S. cable operators and the cable industry’s research consortium CableLabs are currently working on a 10G initiative that would lead to the deployment of broadband networks capable of handling 10 Gbps speeds for both downloads and uploads.

Phil McKinney, president and CEO, CableLabs has repeatedly argued that they see no slowing down in internet traffic.

The report, “Is Fixed Broadband Traffic Growth Slowing Down?” challenges that. It notes that for many years Nielsen’s Law has accurately predicted that the data rate of the highest available broadband service tier for cable consumers will grow by about 50% a year.

Strategy Analytics senior analyst and author of the report Dan Grossman argued that “growth in broadband internet traffic was driven by a handful of phenomena, most recently the rise of streaming video. As consumers become saturated, we have seen no evidence of another driver to replace it. Not 4K (UHD) or 8K (UHD2) video. Not Augmented Reality. Not Virtual Reality. Not streaming or console games. Not Smart Homes. Broadband internet is a maturing business, and the industry has to plan for that.”

As a result, the research company believes that there is “little evidence to suggest that a critical mass of consumers is likely to require more than 100-300 Mbps any time in the next 10 years,” said Strategy Analytics Service Director Phil Kendall. “There will be many reasons why service providers will need to offer higher headline rates, but the days of prioritizing investment in ‘speeds and feeds’ are coming to an end, to be replaced by a need to focus on latency, reliability and customer service as sources of differentiation.”

NEWTON, Mass.—Streaming is poised to overtake pay-TV in terms of consumer spending as soon as 2024, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

The “U.S. Subscription TV Forecast” from Strategy Analytics details that pay-TV services fell by 8% in 2020, totaling $90.7 billion. That decrease is expected to continue, with pay-TV spending hitting $74.5 billion in 2023.

Streaming, meanwhile, is on the rise. In 2020 alone it increased 34% to reach $39.5 billion. By 2024 that number is projected to be $76.3 billion. This would mark the first time that streaming spending surpassed pay-TV.

Strategy Analytics points out that even as pay-TV viewership numbers have declined and in some cases already been surpassed by streaming, the money spent on pay-TV still exceeded that of streaming. However, as cord-cutting has become more common and streaming services more numerous, revenues are projected to shift away from legacy pay-TV.

In context, Strategy Analytics forecasts that pay-TV will account for 40% of spending on video and TV services in 2026, down from the 81% it represented 10 years earlier.

“The fact that viewers are willing to divert an ever-increasing share of their entertainment wallet away from pay TV and towards new internet-based services demonstrates that the future lies with streaming video services rather than legacy pay TV players,” said Michael Goodman, director, TV & Media Strategies for Strategy Analytics. “This is a long-term transition, but there is no doubt that the writing is on the wall for pay TV as we have known it for more than 40 years.”

For more information, read the full U.S. Subscription TV Forecast from Strategy Analytics.

BOSTON—8K TVs could go big over the next few years, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics, shared by 8K Association. By 2025, 72 million homes around the world will own an 8K TV, with the hi-res TVs taking ownership of the market for TVs 70 inches and larger.

In 2020, about 350,000 8K TVs were sold, said Strategy Analytics. Sales were slowed by the cancellation of the Tokyo Olympics. Those numbers are expected to reach 1 million in 2021 with the Olympics expected to take place (though some concerns still remain). That figure is then projected to grow to 4 million in 2022.

For TVs 70 inches are larger, 8K TVs will likely makeup 40% of the market in 2023, before jumping to more than 90% in 2025, Strategy Analytics estimates. Projections have 8K TVs making up just under half of the market for 60-69-inch TVs and under 10% for TVs 50-59 inches in 2025.

“Overall, the penetration of 8K TVs will lag the rate that 4K penetrated the market as the screen sizes for 8K will be bigger and therefore a more limited market,” David Watkins, service director, Connected Home Devices, for Strategy Analytics told the 8K Association.

A  potential issue in the near-time for the sale of 8K TVs is the price increase that may occur as a result of shortages in TV panel supply, though Strategy Analytics still projects single digit growth.

Chinese brands like TCL and Hisense could continue to focus on value pricing, which Watkins says could help get 8K TVs to a $2,000 price point by the end of 2021.

“Ultimately, we see the panel makers as the key to driving down 8K TV prices,” said Watkins. “If one or two switch over entire lines to 8K, that could initiate a stampede among other suppliers.”

BOSTON—Connected TV devices are proving to be a popular gift this holiday season, as Strategy Analytics is reporting that global sales of CTV devices are expected to reach record heights, largely due to both the holidays and people recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to new research from Strategy Analytics, CTV device sales will surpass 111 million units in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 32% growth from the previous quarter and a 6% growth year-over-year. Game consoles are the fastest growing device (150% growth), per the report, with both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X hitting shelves this year. Meanwhile, media streamers will see a 42% growth in sales and smart TVs are projected to have a 9% growth.

Strategy Analytics projects that Amazon will be the leading vendor from these sales, with 12.8 million CTV devices sold. Samsung and Sony are expected to sell around 12 million each; LG and Nintendo about 7 million.

By the end of 2020, Strategy Analytics predicts that there will be 1.3 billion CTV devices in use worldwide.

“For many people, streaming video and TV are increasingly the default option when they switch on the big screen,” said David Watkins, director, Connected Home Devices. “Smart TVs are fast becoming the first-choice gateway to the fast expanding world of video-on-demand and internet TV services, and streamers and consoles are a great choice for those who want to upgrade on existing TV.”

The full Global Connected TV Device Vendor Market Share report is available on Strategy Analytics website. 

BOSTON—The global streaming video market saw its largest quarterly gain of subscribers ever in the third quarter of 2020, according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics. Multiple factors have contributed to recent surges of streaming subscribers, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the launch of new streaming services, most notably Disney+.

The Q3 2020 Global Video Service Competitor Review found that Q3 saw an annual increase of global streaming subscriptions of 217.6 million, besting the previous highmark of 211.7 million that occurred in Q4 2018. As of the end of Q3, the total of global subscribers among the leading 21 streaming services has reached 769.8 million, per Strategy Analytics. Even with this growth, Strategy Analytics believes that the streaming market is still a ways from reaching market maturity.

The two main factors attributing to this are the pandemic, which with people at home more has led to an increase in the number of streaming services households are subscribing too, as well as the emergence of new streaming services. Major services—particularly Disney+, which drew 86.8 million subscribers in its first year, ranking second among global subscribers, Strategy Analytics says—are growing and are still expected to launch in many more countries.

After the previous high mark in Q4 2018, streaming subscriber growth actually decreased for four straight quarters. However, the last three have reversed that trend with consistently growing numbers.

“Until early 2020 it looked like the SVOD growth curve was heading toward a plateau, but the annual growth rate has actually been accelerating during the past 12 months,” said Michael Goodman, director, TV & Media Strategies, Strategy Analytics. “Netflix of course remains the clear leader, but its share of subscriptions has been falling steadily as new entrants arrive.”

“The evidence confirms that the transformation of TV is well under way,” said David Mercer, Strategy Analytics’ vice president and principal analyst. “SVOD services are playing a key role in changing the way people watch TV, and we expect hundreds of millions of homes worldwide to move away from traditional broadcast and pay-TV over the coming decade.”

Strategy Analytics’ full report is available online. 

BOSTON—There are more than 1.1 billion TV and video streaming devices in use across the globe, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics. 

Leading the way on the brand side for TV and video streaming devices is Samsung, with Strategy Analytics reporting they have a 14% share of the streaming devices in use. Sony (12%), LG (8%) Hisense (5%), TCL (5%) and Amazon (5%) follow.

The Tizen platform is the leader when it comes to the top player in TV streaming, with it accounting for 11% of deployed devices. It is followed by WebOS (7%), PlayStation (7%), RokuOS (5%), Fire OS (5%), Android TV (4%) and Xbox (4%). Strategy Analytics says the platform environment is still fragmented because many older, proprietary systems are still in use.

As internet video services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu have continued to grow, particularly during the pandemic, so has the importance of TV streaming platforms and devices, Strategy Analytics says. Streaming video is increasingly being viewed on TV screens over mobile devices, all while traditional pay-TV, broadcast and home video platforms decline.

“As traditional television and video platforms continue to decline, TV streaming represents the future of television and video,” said David Mercer, vice president, Media and Intelligent Home. “Over the next decade or so we expect internet streaming to dominate consumption of television and video content across much of the world. This research reflects the early stages in the evolution of the platforms, which will come to determine this ecosystem for many years to come.”

The Strategy Analytics “TV Streaming Platforms” service tracks quarterly developments on TV and video streaming devices across 27 countries. The full report can be viewed online. 

BOSTON—Strategy Analytics expects the global virtual reality and augmented reality markets to pick back up in 2021 after a down year in 2020 because of COVID-19.

The projections come from Strategy Analytics’ report, “Short and Long Term Impacts of COVID-19 on the AR and VR Market.”

Among the key findings from the report are that the forecasted combined shipments of VR headsets and AR dedicated headsets is on pace to increase sixfold through 2025. XR hardware (the identification for this combined group) revenues are projected to surpass $28 billion annually in 2025.

Vendors like Samsung and start-up Nreal are also expected to commercialize lightweight, consumer-friendly AR headsets that are tethered to smartphones, which Strategy Analytics says will drive growth in mid and low tier markets. Also in the lower end of the market, 2021-2022 should see a comeback of smartphone-tethered headsets as a result of mobile operators launching 5G.

Though Strategy Analytics has increased its overall forecast for VR headsets, it has decreased its anticipated shipments of console-tethered VR; this is based on Microsoft’s decision not to support VR in the next-generation Xbox.

“We have raised our longer term forecast for XR hardware as a result of new work and life patterns in the ‘new normal,’” said David MacQueen, director of virtual and augmented reality service at Strategy Analytics. “Work at home, training, education and collaboration will all benefit from AR/VR.”

Strategy Analytics’ Vice President David Kerr also says the audience for these devices has expanded beyond gamers and into fields like engineering, automotive and architecture.

A full summary of the report is available on Strategy Analytics’ website. 

BOSTON—Content consumption shot up during quarantines, but a new study shows that when restrictions began to be lifted, streaming numbers came down from what they were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Strategy Analytics surveyed U.S. adults over March, April and May to find COVID-19’s impact on SVOD. For Netflix, 47% of respondents used the service in March, then 50% did so in April. However, in May, when many states began to ease lock-down restrictions, that number dropped to 42%.

Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ saw similar “pandemic peak” patterns. The number of users for Apple TV+ and CBS All Access, however, rose in both April and May.

“It’s not surprising that there was a spike in demand for video services as many people were stuck at home for several weeks,” said David Mercer, vice president, Media and Intelligent Home, at Strategy Analytics. “SVOD services have benefited to varying degrees, and they must all now focus on retaining customers who have joined recently as well as ensuring that their content development strategies are on track. This will prove challenging for many players, given the continuing crisis in video production as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.”

For more information, visit www.strategyanalytics.com.

NEWTON, Mass.—In the race to be the dominant streaming TV platform in the United States, Roku is adding to its lead over its rivals and is positioning itself to widen the gap between it and its next closest competitor by 70% by year’s end, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics.

The report, “USA Connected TV Device Vendor Market Share Q1 2019,” reveals that Roku’s streaming platform accounted for 30% of U.S. sales of connected TV devices for the quarter. According to the report, 41 million Roku-based devices, including Roku media streamers and Roku-based smart TVs, are in use nationwide, accounting for 15.2% of all media streaming devices.

“Roku had another strong quarter in Q1 and continues to hold a commanding lead in streaming media platforms in spite of Amazon’s growing influence in the living room,” said David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics and author of the report.

The company now leads Sony Playstation, its next closest major competitor, by 36% in terms of devices in use, the report says, attributing Roku’s predicted growth by year-end to its smart TV partnership strategy.

The report also finds:

• Amazon’s Fire TV OS was the second most sold streaming TV platform during the quarter with 12%, followed by Samsung’s Tizen at 11% and Google, including Android TV and Chromecast, at 9%.
• By the end of the year, Roku-powered devices will total 52 million, accounting for 18% of all connected media devices.

“Roku’s extensive content offering, comprehensive search function and simple and intuitive user interface have been key factors in its success, alongside affordable hardware and regularly updated software,” said Watkins. “Roku has managed to establish itself as a highly respected and trusted brand in the U.S. with no perceived hidden agenda when it comes to promoting content on its platform.”

However, outside the United States Roku is less well-known. To succeed abroad, Roku must build brand awareness and chip away at users of well-established players like Amazon, Apple and Google, he added.

To learn more about the report, visit the Strategy Analytics website.

TV will represent 80 per cent of global video ad spend in the next five years, according to a new report from analysts Strategy Analytics.

In their Global Advertising Forecast - 2-20-2023 report, the company says this year, global TV ad spend will be over $195 billion and grow to $210 billion by 2023.

Digital video will represent only 20 per cent of global video ad spend in 2023, despite being the fastest growing digital advertising category (+10.8 per cent CAGR over 2018-2023), reaching nearly $51 billion in 2023.

The report says the U.K., which has been a leader in adoption of digital advertising and was the first country to see total digital advertising eclipse that of TV advertising, leads global territories in terms of digital’s share of total video, accounting for 44 per cent in 2023, followed by the U.S. (30 per cent) and China (27 per cent). On a per capita basis, marketers will spend $67.27 per person on digital video advertising in the U.K. versus $65.76 in the US.

Michael Goodman, director, television and media strategies, at Strategy Analytics said, “With consumers increasingly watching video across platforms, including mobile devices and connected TV screens, audience measurement agencies are evolving their tools, however, cross-device measurement solutions are still geared towards reach-based metrics, and in a fragmented online world, no media can provide reach better than television.”

BOSTON—A recent report from Strategy Analytics shows that spending on video streaming will increase by $1.19 billion in 2016 to a total of $6.62 billion, but according to Strategy Analytics, this is a sign of the market beginning to slow down. The reason for that belief is that for the first time the growth rate of the video streaming market to be less than the previous year—$1.21 billion in 2015—indicating that the market may be reaching saturation.

“Although the change in increase is relatively small, its direction is extremely significant,” said Michael Goodman, Strategy Analytics’ digital media director. “It shows that, whilst actual market saturation is a few years off yet, the domestic U.S. streaming subscription market is now on the backside of the adoption curve. The incremental increase in annual dollar spend will decline from here on.”

Nearly 60 percent of homes subscribe to a video streaming service, i.e. Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu. An estimated 40 percent of households subscribe to at least two video streaming services, per Strategy Analytics. Goodman notes that market saturation resides around 85 percent for broadband households. He forecasts that annual growth will fall below 8 percent within the next five years.

Additional findings of the report include other methods of consumer spending on home video. DVD/Blu-Rays are the second most popular format, but that method is declining 7 percent for purchases to a 30 percent consumer and 10 percent for rentals to 14 percent. Downloading is on the rise, inversely, with 17 percent purchasing downloads; download renting is down however to 5 percent.

Overall, Americans are predicted to spend $19.09 billion on home video in 2016, a 3.6 percent increase from 2015. With the addition of advertising’s $8.82 billion, overall revenues are expected to hit $27.3 billion, an 8.3 percent growth.

Read the full report here.