Parks Associates said that as the flat panel TV market has flattened, the focus of buyers is towards the user experience when they look at Smart TVs or media players. The company said that 45% of U.S. broadband households have a smart TV, which is now the most commonly used platform among U.S. broadband households for accessing online video content. Parks pointed out that Samsung recently announced it has integrated Amazon Music into its smart TVs, one of the first third-party non-Alexa devices in the U.S. to stream Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited.
Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development said:
“Parks Associates’ holiday data find 11 per cent of US broadband households have a strong intention to purchase a 4K TV this holiday season, but overall, device sales of flat-panel TVs have flattened out. As a result, we are seeing new partnerships among device manufacturers focused on ways to improve or refresh the UI of the smart TV, to make the device easy to use and a single point of content in the living room.”
The company said that voice control will be a key trend in connected consumer electronics at the upcoming CES show.
