Apple is no longer expected to debut either a new Apple TV streaming device or a subscription TV service at its annual developers conference starting Monday. But maybe it doesn't really need to.
According to a new study out this morning from Adobe, whose online marketing services track online video and TV viewing, Apple already is gaining a lot of ground with both Apple TV and its larger iPhones. When it comes to TV content viewed online through TV Everywhere, the cable and satellite companies' method of authenticating their paid subscribers wherever they're watching, Apple's devices overall claimed a commanding 62% of authentications in the first quarter.
Mobile devices are driving most of that share, more than anything because Apple sold so many iPhone 6s, with their much more video-friendly larger screens. The iPad and the iPhone together claimed 48% of log-ins, up a couple of percentage points from the fourth quarter. Overall, despite the plethora of other devices on which to watch TV and video, nearly a quarter of all online video starts happened on iPhones and iPads.
Still, Apple TV devices saw the most gains, going from 5% share in the fourth quarter to 10% in the first quarter. That's apparently because a lot of Apple TVs found their way under the Christmas tree, says Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst for Adobe Digital Index.
The results leave Gaffney downbeat on the prospects for Roku, whose widely praised streaming video devices have gained a solid hold in the market amid pitched competition from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many others. It could lose the consumer decision on which of many devices to dedicate to the limited number of HDMI ports on their TVs.
Even so, all the companies with devices that can play streaming TV and video are benefiting from the stream of viewers to on-demand TV. So-called over-the-top devices such as Apple TV, Roku, and Google's Chromecast, and game consoles like the Xbox. Collectively, their share of TV Everywhere authentications jumped from 6% to 24% in the quarter. Overall, TV Everywhere video starts rose almost four times over last year.
Apple wasn't the winner on all fronts, at least when it comes to authenticated TV viewing online. The Mac's share of TV Everywhere authentications fell from 8% in the fourth quarter to just 3% in the first quarter. It's not alone in notebook computers losing share, though. PCs went from 12% to 7%.
Also, people apparently like to swap out Apple's Safari browser for Google's Chrome browser on their iPhones, as well as on their Macs and other PCs, at least judging from Adobe's numbers. Android and Chrome desktop browsers combined saw an 18% increase in video visits, increasing Google's share to 39% from 33% a year ago, while Safari saw a 15% increase, upping its share from 28% to 32%. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox were the losers.
All this has implications for advertisers. For one, Adobe's numbers indicate that viewers' eyeballs are moving from computers to phones, tablets, and increasingly over-the-top streaming devices. More than that, peak viewing times are changing, as "must-see TV" traditionally on Thursday nights when movie studios spent big bucks in anticipation of the weekend has shifted to Wednesday nights, now the most popular night for TV Everywhere viewing. And Fridays are for binge watching.
In a more speculative vein, Gaffney thinks TV may not be the endgame for Apple's ambitions for the device that Steve Jobs often called a "hobby." "Apple TV is a wedge to become the brain center of the Internet of Things at home," Gaffney says.
