Some 8 Billion Mobile, PC, AV Devices Were Connected at End of 2015, Says IHS

Some 8.1 billion devices were connected worldwide at the end of last year, said an IHS report Friday, counting smartphones, tablets, PCs, TVs, set-top boxes and audio devices. That's an average four devices per household, IHS said. Smartphones are adding a half billion new devices to the market each year, five times that of tablets, with the ratio expected to widen to 10:1 by 2020, IHS said. Google shipped 3.7 million Chromecast units in Q1, outnumbering Apple TV shipments (1.7 million) for the first time, a trend IHS expects to continue as the companies pursue “vastly different strategies.” The $149 Apple TV has carved out a space at the high end for digital video streamers and gamers in the Apple ecosystem. At $35, Chromecast is a “bargain,” providing a no-frills experience that complements Android devices, said analyst Merrick Kingston. Leading all streaming video companies, Netflix addressed 339 million connected devices in the U.S. at the end of 2015, or about a third of the AV hardware landscape, said Kingston. Pay-TV media apps “are virtually guaranteed to sit alongside the Netflix application on consumers’ end devices,” he said