Google’s own media streaming instrument, the Chromecast, is pushing the competition to the extreme by retailing it for a price of only $30 to $35, making it the cheapest in the market today. And that’s a great value to consumers and TV fans alike, whether Roku and the other competitors in the market admit it or not.
Apart from its reputation as the pioneer and the pacesetter in the streaming market, Roku also enjoys familiarity with consumers and the sentimental users in them would likely stick to something that they have proven before. That is the focal point of Roku 4 when it comes out but whether its rather hefty price would keep its sentimental users loyal or not remains to be seen.
In addition to its main features, the Roku 4 will reportedly have a reset button on the front, a stabilized firmware, an improved channel store, and a support for 802.11 AC Wi-Fi.
It will also come with a 2GB of RAM, which is far greater than the 512MB of RAM that the Roku 3 had. It shall also come with wireless technology and an internal antenna to improve the signal. Rumors also point to the device coming out with an ultra-HD resolution.
How about the ability to turn the TV on and change the volume. Unbelievably you can’t do this with the roku remote! Roku needs to be able to send CEC commands to do this or at minimum add an IR blaster. Without this I won’t buy or recommend the product to others.
If updates are cancelled for the Roku 3 I will never buy another Roku product.