There are currently smart TVs on the market at every price point. Discounting by major players like Amazon and Roku has been driving consumer adoption. "The best selling TV during Amazon Prime Day was a heavily discounted Toshiba smart TV with Amazon Fire OS. Lower prices yield a lower barrier for adoption," said junior forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom.
Historically, there has been a gap between the number of people who owned a smart TV and those who used one for internet access.
This gap was perpetuated by poorly designed operating systems that quickly became obsolete. For example, people would buy a smart TV and then not use its built-in internet capabilities. But improved user interfaces in newer models have closed this gap.
"These improved operating systems also offer access to more apps and streaming services than older smart TVs," Haggstrom said. "Today’s smart TVs offer access to all of the major streaming services."
According to an H1 2018 survey from GlobalWebIndex, nearly 40% of internet users in the US own a smart TV. What's more, roughly 30% of respondents said they used a smart TV to access the internet in the past month.