What They Say
Roku’s CEO, Anthony Wood, has said at a Morgan Stanley Technology conference, that smartTV makers will ‘eventually’ give up and license operating systems from Roku, Amazon or Google. He sees an analogy with the smartphone market which has converged on two key ecosystems.
“We still have a lot of people using Samsung, LG and Vizio, but over time, they’re going to switch to licensing third-party operating systems,”
Wood said. Roku has more than 60 million active accounts in the US, but has also developed markets such as Mexico, where his firm has gone from 0% to 20% in ‘just a few years’. He thinks that LG and Samsung have done well in Europe partly because Roku has not been active until relatively recently.
What We Think
While there is some logic to Roku’s view, Samsung has said that its OS is in 1.2 billion devices, and it’s hard to see the firm giving up its control. However, I would find it hard to argue that others would not be well served by adopting another OS. On the other hand, Roku will also have a fight on its hands to survive alongside Amazon and Google. (BR)
