Roku survival requires taking sales from Apple TV

The Saratoga company makes little devices that offer hundreds of channel-like apps with access to much more content than rival Apple TV, despite the conspicuous absence of YouTube and iTunes from the Roku lineup.

Back when Chromecast was just a gleam in Google's eye, the Roku team had already released a plug-in dongle to stream video from the Web and mobile devices on a TV.

Roku released new versions of its streaming devices this week, making minor improvements to its cheaper models and announcing a new deal with M-Go, a service that allows people to buy or rent video content.

Research group Parks Associates recently found that 37 percent of households that have a streaming video device use a Roku as their primary gadget, more than the 21 percent using Apple TV or any other rival device.

[...] Apple TV accounts for 56 percent of all sales of streaming video devices, according a recent estimate by Frost & Sullivan, while Roku remains in distant second with 21 percent of the market.

Apple, of course, makes its money on those products and sees Apple TV mainly as another way to drive sales of digital content on its iTunes store.

[...] circling as Roku rivals are video-game consoles, which aren't included in sales numbers for streaming devices but do include similar apps, such as Netflix and a wide array of video rental and purchase services.