Once described by the company’s legendary former CEO Steve Jobs as a hobby, Apple TV is swiftly gaining market traction and now stands at third place in the global set-top box (STB) market, says research firm IHS.
Overall, the IHS Set-Top Box Intelligence Market Monitor found that in 2015, global STB shipments grew 4.8% , year-over-year, to reach 353 million units. Growth was driven mainly by a surge in the IPTV market in China where telcos are pushing IPTV services to generate returns on their investments in fibre-to-the-home (FTTH).
Revenue for 2015 in all fell 5.4% to $22.2 billion, due to reduced demand for high value STBs in North America, primarily caused by poor pay-TV performance in the region. Yet in the fourth quarter of 2015, revenue increased by 3.4% to reach $5.7 billion in the, compared with the previous quarter, partially driven by next generation device launches of Amazon, Roku and notably Apple.
The CE giant has risen from ninth place in 2014 to third after ARRIS and Technicolor, the latter’s relative positions boosted by acquisition of Pace and Cisco's set-top box division. IHS attributes Apple’s surge to continued strong growth in consumer retail over-the-top (OTT) television boxes, and the consolidation of the top players of the global STB market.
The analyst believes that Apple is now in global contention from a unit-shipment standpoint with more than ten million Apple TVs shipped in 2015, the fifth largest volume in the world following Arris, Technicolor, Skyworth and ZTE.
“Apple TV’s particular success is a result of translating consumption habits from across Apple’s wider device ecosystem onto the TV screen,” explained said Daniel Simmons, director of connected home for IHS Technology and author of the report.
“The new positioning of Apple at the top of the set-top box market reflects several trends. Pay-TV specific set-top boxes are becoming less important for consumers to access premium content, because Netflix, HBO Go and other OTT video platforms now offer top-tier content to retail OTT STBs. As retail STBs have grown in the market, traditional pay-TV set-top vendors have been forced to re-position themselves, with significant consolidation at the top of the market, diversification toward software and services in the middle, and low-end vendors moving toward broader volume.”
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