Roku is taking its TV operating system outside of North America for the first time, the company had announced at IFA.
Hisense UK will launch its first TVs managed by Roku in the fourth quarter of this year.
Earlier, Roku’s television operating system has only been accessible in North America.
Here it has been featured in TVs from TCL, Sharp, and Hisense’s US arm.
The Roku TV Review
Consumers have always liked Roku’s TV operating system, so it will be great to see it launch outside of North America.
When reviewed last year, TCL 6-Series television, it was noticed that Roku’s software was simple and comfortable to use.
It also, critically, has almost every streaming app you could ask for.
That is more than what can be told for Amazon’s competing Fire TV platform in the past.
They lacked local YouTube support until lately, thanks to Amazon’s dispute with Google.
Roku TVs also profit from continued ongoing support.
The company says that it manages firm control over its update process.
This means it can push updates to older TVs even if their manufacturers have discontinued to support them.
One of Roku’s significant competitors, Amazon, also used IFA this year to announce the global extension of its Fire TV Editions.
These are televisions which uses Amazon’s Fire TV platform as a built-in operating system.
The Roku & Amazon Competition
Earlier restricted to North America, Amazon has now partnered up with manufacturers to launch the TVs in Europe.
Both the companies have sold their standalone streaming hardware outside of North America for quite a few years now.
The launch is possible to increase competition between Roku and Amazon.
According to market research, Roku is currently ahead in North America.
The worldwide launch of Roku TV reveals the growing importance the company is putting on its software compared to its hardware.
Last year, the company’s CEO had expressed Roku as a commercial business rather than a hardware business.
Moreover, this worldwide launch of Roku TV can expand the reach of its platform.
However, even as more smart TVs come with Roku software built-in,
Roku isn’t giving up on selling its hardware anytime soon.
Moving ahead, Roku assumes most TV manufacturers to make the likewise decision as Hisense.
To license a third-party operating system instead of just relying on their in-house software.
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