Major streaming media players reviewed: new Apple TV is best for iOS users, Amazon's Fire TV has the best interface and streaming quality
The ultimate, 10,000-word review of streaming media players: Apple TV vs. Roku 4 vs. Fire TV vs. Chromecast — Television is in flux, right down to what that word even means.
Context & Ripple Effects
Quartz's 10,000-word verdict arrives two weeks after the new Apple TV's launch window: CNET's content comparison across Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and Chromecast ran October 29, and The Verge's same-day review flagged a stripped-down Siri and apps that feel like enlarged iPhone apps. The stakes are real for Apple because it had already lost the volume lead — Amazon's Fire TV outsold it in 2014, dropping it to fourth place among streaming devices.
The review matters as a snapshot before the market tipped further: within two years, Roku held 37% US share with Apple TV down to 15%, and by late 2016 critics were calling out the new Apple TV as the only device above $90 lacking HDR with weak Netflix and cable integration.
First-order effects
- Shoppers choosing between the four major players get a split verdict: Apple TV is the pick for iOS households, while Fire TV takes the interface and streaming-quality crown — meaning neither ecosystem leader sweeps the category outright.
- Apple's differentiation rests on iOS lock-in rather than device superiority, which limits its addressable audience to iPhone owners at a moment when it was already trailing on unit sales.
Second-order effects
- Amazon's win on interface and streaming quality strengthens Fire TV's value pitch just as it gains sales momentum over Apple, pressuring Apple to justify its premium price through services rather than hardware merit.
- Roku's neutral, app-agnostic positioning — absent from both winning claims — becomes the quiet beneficiary: it competes on price and breadth while Apple and Amazon fight over ecosystem loyalty.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the set-top box market stratifies between premium ecosystem devices (Apple) and low-cost neutral platforms (Roku, Chromecast), with share flowing to whoever treats apps and content openness as the product — the trajectory the 2017 share data confirms.
- Apple's subsequent struggles — missing HDR, thin app integration, calls for a total strategy revamp — point toward hardware reviews becoming referendums on platform strategy, where a device can be well-built and still lose.
The trend: Streaming hardware competition is shifting from device quality to ecosystem gravity, favoring open, cheap platforms like Roku over premium walled-garden boxes.