9to5Google flagged some new data putting Google TV and Android TV together in third place among streaming platforms in the States. I can't get the full piece to load and I haven't seen the underlying methodology, so treat the ranking as a headline rather than a fact for now. But the claim itself is worth arguing about, because third place sounds either impressive or embarrassing depending on what exactly is being counted.
The reason I'm sceptical of any single number here is that these surveys never agree on the unit. Installed base counts every Sony, TCL and Hisense set that shipped with the OS baked in, whether or not the owner ever signed in or just plugged a Fire Stick into HDMI 2 and never looked back. Hours of viewing is a different ranking entirely. Devices sold in the last twelve months is a third. Lumping Android TV in with Google TV also quietly folds in a lot of older boxes and operator-supplied set tops that have nothing to do with the current experience.
What I'd actually want to know is engagement on built-in Google TV sets specifically. Anecdotally, half the people I know with a Google TV panel run everything through a stick or a console, because the built-in silicon on a mid-range set gets slow inside two years while the Streamer stays fine.
So, a straw poll worth more than the survey: if your TV came with Google TV, are you still using it as the main input, or has something else taken over?
The reason I'm sceptical of any single number here is that these surveys never agree on the unit. Installed base counts every Sony, TCL and Hisense set that shipped with the OS baked in, whether or not the owner ever signed in or just plugged a Fire Stick into HDMI 2 and never looked back. Hours of viewing is a different ranking entirely. Devices sold in the last twelve months is a third. Lumping Android TV in with Google TV also quietly folds in a lot of older boxes and operator-supplied set tops that have nothing to do with the current experience.
What I'd actually want to know is engagement on built-in Google TV sets specifically. Anecdotally, half the people I know with a Google TV panel run everything through a stick or a console, because the built-in silicon on a mid-range set gets slow inside two years while the Streamer stays fine.
So, a straw poll worth more than the survey: if your TV came with Google TV, are you still using it as the main input, or has something else taken over?
