Despite being available for half a decade longer than Google’s magical streaming stick, Apple TV has now been officially unseated from the second place position on a survey of streaming media customers by the diminutive Chromecast. According to a new report by Park Associates, both devices trail behind Roku, which holds a 29% share of the market, while the Amazon Fire TV trails behind all three of them.
At a 17% market share for 2014 — compared to the Chromecast’s 20% — Apple TV is seeing some super stiff competition from the stick-style streaming gadgets that tend to be both cheaper and a whole lot more convenient. Apple has thus far avoided going to a dongle-style form factor for the Apple TV, though the market appears to be pushing them in that direction.
Could Apple dream up a super tiny Apple TV Stick? Of course, but Apple isn’t typically in the position of playing catch-up to what other companies are doing — for better or worse — so it’ll be interesting to see how the Apple TV evolves now that the stick has become the standard.
