Google’s $35 Chromecast Nearly Doubles Apple TV Sales In Red Hot Streaming Category
Streaming devices for HDTVs are a hot item these days, and the price of entry for many of the top-selling devices is extremely attractive for folks that want an easy to way to stream Netflix, Hulu or even Amazon Video content. Stepping into the streaming market can come as cheaply as $35 for the Google Chromecast, while similar devices like the Amazon Fire TV Stick and Roku Streaming Stick will run you just $5 and $15 more respectively.
According to the latest analysis from IHS, it looks as though Google’s incredibly attractive pricing on the Chromecast has resulted in some pretty impressive sales numbers. IHS is reporting that Google shipped 3.2 million of the devices during the first quarter of 2016. On the other hand, Apple was well behind having shipped just 1.7 million of its Apple TV devices.
The drastic difference in shipments numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the cheapest hardware streamer that Apple sells is the third-generation Apple TV, which was first introduced over three years ago. It’s priced at $69, which makes its twice as expensive as the Chromecast. From there, prices skyrocket with the base fourth-generation Apple TV (32GB) coming in at $149 while the 64GB model costs $199.
“Since the introduction of the fourth-generation Apple TV, Apple and Google have pursued vastly different strategies,” said Merrick Kingston, principal analyst-connected home, at IHS Technology.
Given that the the fourth-generation Apple TV doesn’t even support 4K resolutions like competing offerings like the Amazon Fire TV and Roku 4, many potential customers are likely passing by Apple when it comes to purchase time, limited its appeal to those already firmly entrenched in the Apple ecosystem.
With that said, IHS unfortunately didn’t provide any analysis on sales from Roku and Amazon, which would have added some more color to the conversation. Roku has typically been the market leader in the streaming hardware category for quite some time, with Google taking up the second place position.
