Roku Sales Doubled As Apple TV Brought Halo Effect To Streaming Media

Apple TV may be headed to the 1m sales mark, but that doesn't mean streaming rivals are quaking in their boots. Roku CEO Anthony Wood is actually thankful to Apple for the new Apple TV, telling Business Insider that sales of his products doubled at the time of the Cupertino device's launch. He credits new attention and awareness of the streaming media category – fuelled by Apple's massive marketing push – for Roku getting on toward selling its 1 millionth box by the end of 2010.

As for 2011, Roku is planning broader retail distribution along with a greater number of embedded implementations courtesy of licensing deals (as with Netgear's Roku XD); there's also the promise of new content. The company recently updated its streamers with 1080p Full HD, together with support for Hulu Plus.