What Display Daily thinks: We can keep this one really simple: it’s the computing. But then again, I have so many thoughts on the subject.
Most of the display industry chatter around TVs goes into a deep dive discussions of the display, the brightness, the colors, and the infinitesimal structure of the layers and planes of display materials. That’s fun. At least until it becomes very repetitive. And boy, who wants to wait 3 to 5 years before they get to sell what they just figured out how to make?
Sorry, maybe that is a bit too harsh. Post-changing-of-the-year hangover, maybe.
What Variety’s data below tells me is that the really important stuff that is happening around TVs is the stuff that goes into making them smart: the OS, the user experience, the applications, the monetization, and so on and so forth. And it is a wide open market. Take a look at some other recent data on smart TV shipments from IDC.
| Smart TV OS | 2023 Market Share (%) | 2023/2022 Growth Rate (%) | 2027 Market Share (%) | 2027/2026 Growth Rate (%) | 2023-2027 CAGR (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android | 38.1 | -4.6 | 39 | 5.3 | 3.7 |
| Tizen | 21.3 | -5.2 | 23 | 6.1 | 4.9 |
| Roku OS | 12.5 | 4.0 | 12 | 3.8 | 2.5 |
| FireOS | 3.4 | 13.2 | 4 | 7.8 | 8.3 |
| Others | 24.6 | -9.8 | 22 | 3.7 | 0.9 |
| Total | 100.0 | -5.5 | 100 | 5.0 | 3.3 |
There’s branding opportunities there for smart smart TV vendors. There’s also functional opportunities for display makers. It’s just about finding the right feature mix. By that, I mean that instead of very specific, pixel-deep features, it is about what the display allows the user to do.
Your smart TV should be as close to ease of use and experience to a smartphone as possible.
And what’s out there is not good enough. TV remotes from TV manufacturers are pretty sucky. Discovery is still overwrought and clunky (you know there’s something called Plex that pretty much does all the discovery and connecting to your services that you could ever need – give it a try). You can’t even do a decent video call on your TV without some sort of hoop jumping or Apple-loving machinations.
Even the ads could be better.
Just so you know, you have 55+ inch displays as a palette. You could come up with something other than three or four strips of thumbnails, app icons, and hero images, like everyone else.
You get that the audience is captive, right? That’s why everyone is addicted to their phones – it was easier to just hold on to the crap coming at you then move on to something else. Same with TVs. It’s easier to keep sitting on the couch – potato-like if you will – then to move on to some other form of entertainment device. Not sure what replaces the TV in this context so it can’t get any easier to engage the user than that.
The State of Smart TVs in the States
Variety has released a new edition of its special report titled The State of Smart TV. The report highlights the significant growth in smart TV ownership, noting that it has become the fastest-growing segment among electronic devices. The market has seen heightened competition as more companies, including Amazon, Comcast, and Roku, have introduced their own smart TV lines to leverage the device’s increasing popularity.
The report underscores the transformation of smart TVs into the primary means of streaming entertainment. This shift is illustrated by the rise in U.S. household penetration of smart TVs, which increased from 64% to 74% in just one year, as forecasted by the Consumer Technology Association. In contrast, the growth of external connected TV (CTV) devices like Google Chromecast and Roku boxes has slowed down.
Smart TVs have gained momentum as the central hub for streaming due to the proliferation of premium video streaming services. The integration of various streaming apps into the user interfaces of major OEM brands has facilitated this trend. The report also discusses the evolving role of smart TVs as not only streaming devices but also central hubs for controlling smart home devices, expanding their functionality and integration into daily life.
The report further explores the new revenue streams emerging from this trend, particularly in the CTV advertising sector, and how smart TV manufacturers and operating systems are positioned to benefit from shifts in media consumption. With ongoing innovations and expected growth, especially considering the data suggesting an upcoming TV refresh cycle in the U.S., the report concludes that now is an opportune time to understand the dynamics of the smart TV market.
