Streaming media player shipments hit new high
December 14, 2012
Multimedia Research Group (MRG), the market specialist in the Video and Media ecosystem, has released its latest forecast on the worldwide streaming media player market.
The growth of OTT video services is attracting attention to consumer electronics products that can efficiently support streaming media services. One of these products, the streaming media player, has enjoyed significant growth over the past two years.
Streaming media players (sometimes called OTT set-top boxes or digital media adapters) consist of products such as the Apple TV, the WD TV Live, and the Roku HD. While these products are among the ‘success stories’ of the streaming media player market, there have also been more than a few high-profile busts. Among this this latter category are streaming media player products such as the Logitech Revue, Seagate’s GoFlex TV HD Media Player, and Google’s recent Nexus Q.
In 2011, worldwide unit shipments of streaming media players grew to 6.8 million units. However, demand for these products continues to increase steadily and MRG in projecting that total unit shipments will exceed 8.3 million in 2012.
Key findings include:
Worldwide streaming media product revenues are forecast to grow 20 per cent in 2012 compared with 2011.
Apple TV remains the leading streaming media player product on the market, recording over 40 per cent of all global product shipments in 2011. Since 2007, Apple has shipped over 13 million Apple TV products.
The worldwide installed base of streaming media players is expected to grow more than 30 per cent in 2012, slowing to just over 10 per cent by 2016.