Airplay 2 televisions: Apple did not choose its random partners |igeneration

Apple caused a sensation during these last week, announcing the support of AirPlay 2 and Homekit by several television manufacturers.The first apple partners in this new adventure were not chosen at random: they weigh heavy on the TV market.

According to the counting carried out last October by Trendrr based on the LED televisions sold by each manufacturer, the first four manufacturers who will embrace Airplay 2 represent 43.5% of the world market.

Together, these ten manufacturers represented 70.3% of the world LED television market last year.Apple therefore pays for a good slice, but that obviously does not mean that Airplay 2 will appear on more than 43% of TV stations this spring.

Samsung thus indicated that the management of Apple technology will be limited to its Smart TV of 2018 and 2019.For Sony and LG, only the 2019 televisions will be supported, which has irritated LG TV owners, who have put an online petition to require the manufacturer a broad care.

Vizio's case is interesting.The manufacturer first announced the AirPlay 2 compatibility for all its Smartcast TVs since 2017, before further enlarging the 4K smartcast support for 2016.By the way, one wonders why Vizio is capable of accomplishing such a feat and not the others, knowing that certain positions of the compatible manufacturer AirPlay 2 are entries.

Vizio's global market share seems low, but the manufacturer markets the majority of its televisions in North America.In the United States, the brand enjoys market share of 11%, shoulder to shoulder with Sony (NPD figures, August 2018).Samsung holds 34% of the American market, LG 15%.

Apple obviously chose the first partners of AirPlay 2 according to the market shares held in the United States (in four, they represent 71%).It may not be a coincidence: according to a rumor dating back last October, the future video streaming service of the apple would launch in the first half, first in the United States.

We can subdorate that Apple did not give Grachly Airplay 2 and Homekit to third -party manufacturers without compensation: the spring update which will allow their televisions to support Apple technologies could also include access to this video service (Read: The Apple TV sacrificed for the benefit of the future Apple video service?).

As for the other manufacturers, they must undoubtedly look at all of this very closely.TCL indicated that he was engaged with Roku, who has his own application platform.For his part, Hisense is not confirmed on this date.The others did not want to communicate on the subject.

By thinking that AirPlay 2 management from other manufacturers will go hand in hand with the international deployment of Apple video streaming service, there is a difficult step to get.But nothing is impossible when Apple wants to crush the pedal of his services.

1. Samsung did not specify if Homekit was integrated into his compatible TVs AirPlay 2.A priori, it would be quite logical that one did not go without the other, but in the absence of confirmation or infirmation, it is difficult to be categorical.Consolation lot: Samsung is the only manufacturer to offer iTunes (access to the catalog of movies and TV series, as well as to the user library).↩︎