I am the developer of MarketCast which is a stock market app for Android TV and Fire TV. I am debating on releasing the TV app to Canada.
Amazon doesnt sell Fire TV in Canada so that rules them out. Are there any Android TV devices in Canada that sell at all? Sony TVs? Nvidia Shield? Anything else?
Also if you could weigh in on the popularity of competitors like Apple TV, Roku and even Chromecast that would be great!
Thanks!
I'm a Canadian shield TV owner. Anecdotally, when I purchased my Shield at Best buy, the sales person didn't know what it was and seemed genuinely surprised to be selling one. The stock hadn't been moving much at that location, apparently. Take that as you will.
I'm a Canadian and bought my Shield TV Pro over at Canada Computers (the 2017 model) it's also available at other places like NCIX, Vision Electronics, and Memory Express, as they've partnered with NVidia to sell them, a rep for Best Buy Canada however told me they would start carrying the 2017 Shield TV model in stores at the start of April but didn't deliver at least not here in Ottawa and still no mention of it on their site. Other Android TV boxes are impossible to find, the nexus player was sold at a few places in Canada at launch but didn't sell well so places stopped carrying them, I bought my NP off of a seller on a classifieds site that got it off of EBay, the Mi Box, heard of it just have never seen it, as its only available in the US as far as I can tell unless others can state otherwise. They're are plenty of Roku's, Apple TV's, and other set top boxes here in Canada but nothing beats Android TV imo (I'm a proud owner of a Nexus Player, Shield TV Pro, and a Sony NSZGS7 "Google TV" anyone remember those ;) lol
Isn't that just a matter of checking a box so that the Canadian app stores have it listed? Why would you not do that, even if only 50 people downloaded it?
Canuck here, have an android Sony TV, and a mi box as well as several rokus around the house. Also have my own private Plex server hiding in the closet in case streaming ceases to be a viable option around here.
Android TV sets are picking up steam for sure, but the cheap shitty kodi boxes are extremely popular unfortunately.
Apple TVs, Chromecast and Rokus are quite popular. Sony TVs here seem to sell well but stand alone Android TV boxes like the Shield are hard to come by. Mi Box isn't available.
As a Canadian Android TV user, I welcome any new apps for the platform. Slim pickin's up here.
Unfortunately, I would say that true "Android TV" boxes are not yet main stream here in Canada. Roku, Apple Tv and Chromecast are the main streamers. As another user pointed out, the Chinese "Android OS" boxes are quite prevalent.
Prices are high, choices are limited.
I own a Sony Android TV and although I would love to say go for it, as others have already stated the cheap Chinese boxes are pretty prevalent up here. That being said from my experience in retail and cellphones in general, I find that the majority of people here use what is available to them. Gamers tend to use their system to access content and those with smart TVs or Blu Ray players will use that if what they need is available. Most people use Netflix and YouTube so they tend not to buy anything additional unless there is a specific need for them to do so. Out of the competition you mentioned Chromecast and Rokus sell pretty well. Apple TV does sell as well not as much volume wise. At least not in Walmart anyway. But with Bell advertising the use of Apple TV as a second receiver and the Apple store the main stop for people who just want Apple stuff there are probably more out there than I think. The only true Android TV devices available here are Sony TVs and the more popular (relatively) Shield. I don't think it would be a wise investment yet. Sorry for being long winded. Hope this helps.
You can buy the Mibox from NCIX/direct canada even though its the euro version with adapter it will still work...
I would recommend QacQoc Android TV Box. There are cheap ones and expensive ones. The cheap one is 1GB, S905X Chipset(quad core); expensive one is using another chipset, cannot remember the name of this chipset lol sorry, while it is better than S905X I guess? Hope that helps.
There are a lot of android devices used for streaming (cheap chinese boxes etc) but I'd venture to say not a ton of AndroidTV devices currently in the Canadian market.