Roku's official iPhone remote app is available, has gesture control and channel selection for all
Directly on the heels of an update for its newest media streamers, Roku has released its official iPhone remote app. Apparently “inspired by user feedback”, it allows users to launch or rate channels …
Context & Ripple Effects
Roku is the last of the major connected-TV platforms to put its remote on the iPhone, arriving after Apple's own Remote app added iPad and Retina support in September 2010 and Google TV shipped an iPhone remote back in March 2011. The release lands directly on top of a firmware update for Roku's newest boxes, making it a software-and-app pairing rather than a standalone launch.
It caps a heavy 2011 for the company: a hardware refresh in June, the $50 Roku LT aimed at retail shelves, Angry Birds coming to the platform, and HBO Go confirmed for all boxes in October. The app's channel-launching and rating features matter because Roku's pitch is breadth of channels, and the phone is becoming the surface where users browse that catalog.
First-order effects
- iPhone-owning Roku customers can now launch and rate channels by gesture instead of pecking at the on-screen grid with the arrow-key remote, cutting the friction that came with Roku's growing channel count.
- Roku closes a feature gap against Apple and Google TV, both of which already offered official iOS remote apps.
Second-order effects
- Channel ratings collected through the app give Roku usage signal it never had from the infrared wand, feeding which channels get surfaced and rated on the platform itself.
- Competing budget streamers without an iOS companion face a new expectation: at the sub-$100 price point where Roku's LT plays, a free phone remote is becoming part of the product rather than an accessory.
Third-order effects
- If every streamer ships a phone-based controller, the physical remote demotes to backup and the smartphone becomes the discovery and input layer for living-room devices — a shift Apple and Google started and Roku's adoption signals is now table stakes across the category.
- App-mediated control also positions platforms like Roku to add richer second-screen features over time, since the connection to the box no longer depends on line-of-sight hardware.
The trend: Connected-TV platforms are converging on the smartphone as the primary control and discovery surface for the living room, with official iOS remote apps shifting from differentiator to baseline expectation.