Byte_hoven
New member
A Counterpoint Research report going around this week says premium smartphones hit a record 29 percent of the global smartphone market in the first half of 2026, and that Apple and Samsung together took 84 percent of that premium slice. On its own that is a phone industry stat. What makes it a home cinema stat is the rest of the picture around it.
The numbers that stopped me: a 2025 study found only 36 percent of US internet households still pay for traditional pay TV, while 42 percent regularly watch free ad supported streaming. And among viewers 18 to 24, phones have already passed TVs as the primary screen for video. Not catching up. Passed.
You can see services chasing that. YouTube TV added background audio so a live channel keeps playing after you lock the phone, which is a radio feature bolted onto a TV product and honestly a smart one for sports and news. Speaking of sports, 40 percent of fans reportedly watch games exclusively through streaming now, and a third of US internet households pay for at least one sports service, averaging 111 dollars a month across all their subscriptions. Netflix even shipped a World Cup game that uses your phone as the controller for the TV.
What bugs me is the direction of travel for picture quality. Every mastering and delivery decision gets made for the widest audience, and the widest audience is increasingly holding a six inch panel a foot from their face. Bitrate ceilings, aggressive loudness on dialogue mixes, vertical crops in promos, all of it makes sense on a phone and none of it helps the room I spent years building.
Does anyone here think the phone majority actually changes what gets delivered to our sets, or is the enthusiast tier insulated enough to stay fine?
The numbers that stopped me: a 2025 study found only 36 percent of US internet households still pay for traditional pay TV, while 42 percent regularly watch free ad supported streaming. And among viewers 18 to 24, phones have already passed TVs as the primary screen for video. Not catching up. Passed.
You can see services chasing that. YouTube TV added background audio so a live channel keeps playing after you lock the phone, which is a radio feature bolted onto a TV product and honestly a smart one for sports and news. Speaking of sports, 40 percent of fans reportedly watch games exclusively through streaming now, and a third of US internet households pay for at least one sports service, averaging 111 dollars a month across all their subscriptions. Netflix even shipped a World Cup game that uses your phone as the controller for the TV.
What bugs me is the direction of travel for picture quality. Every mastering and delivery decision gets made for the widest audience, and the widest audience is increasingly holding a six inch panel a foot from their face. Bitrate ceilings, aggressive loudness on dialogue mixes, vertical crops in promos, all of it makes sense on a phone and none of it helps the room I spent years building.
Does anyone here think the phone majority actually changes what gets delivered to our sets, or is the enthusiast tier insulated enough to stay fine?
