Android TV device shipments to ‘increase five-fold by 2021’

Worldwide shipments of Android TV devices are set to increase more than five-fold between 2016 and 2021, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The research firm said that smart TV and set-top boxes to be the two dominant product categories for Android TV through the end of the forecast period, with smart TVs expected to be the “primary driver” of the Android TV market.

Worldwide shipments of all Android TV devices – including STBs and smart TVs – are projected to increase from 7.6 million in 2016 to 40.1 million in 2021.

On the TV front, Toshiba, TCL and Bang & Olufsen released Android TV models in 2017 and S&P said it expects smaller manufacturers to also start supporting the operating system in the near future.

“In 2016 we estimate that 4.2% of smart televisions shipped with Android TV, with that number forecasted to grow to 13.3% in 2021,” according to the report.

Android TV unit shipments are expected to increase from 5.5 million to 27 million over the same time period, while the installed base should climb from 14.6 million in 2017 to 80.3 million by 2021.

Android TV set-top box shipments are expected to increase from 1.2 million in 2016 to nearly 12 million in 2021, while S&P said that revenue in this segment should grow from US$97 million in 2016 to US$730 million in 2021.

The report said that some “notable movement” in the STB market was seen this year with both DISH and DirecTV in the US announcing Android TV boxes. Bouygues Telecom in France and NTT DoCoMo in Japan are also due to introduce new Android-powered STBs in 2018.

“Initially, most Android TV deployments were by smaller IPTV (and some cable) companies in Europe and parts of Asia,” said the research. “This seems to be changing though, as operators in North America begin to look at Android TV as a legitimate competitor to Comcast’s RDK.”