The total number of Boxee Box users is around 200,000, according to a tweet sent out by the company Wednesday. The tweet also revealed that Boxee now has a total of 2 million users, if you include users of the discontinued PC client.
Usage numbers of CE devices don’t necessarily translate to sales numbers – in theory, consumers could have bought a device without ever connecting it – but it’s safe to assume that the number of boxes sold isn’t that much higher.
The revelation comes just a few days after D-Link, which manufactures and sells the Boxee Box, introduced another device that addresses some of the same needs at a much cheaper price point. The new MovieNite streamer, which sells exclusively at Walmart for less than $ 50, offers access to Vudu, YouTube and Netflix. A D-Link spokesperson told me that the two devices don’t compete with each other, with Boxee offering more advanced features like local file playback and access to broadcast TV.
Boxee’s sales numbers are certainly low, but still in line with an industry-wide trend: Smart TV set-top boxes haven’t reached a wider audience, and sales have often been below expectations.
We revealed earlier this year that less than there are less than one million Google TV devices being used in people’s households. Roku recently fell short of its own goal to sell three million boxes, instead selling 2.5 million devices in three years, despite a recent massive marketing campaign. The only company able to move higher numbers has been Apple. The company revealed in January that it has sold 4.2 million Apple TVs.
(Thanks Dave Zatz!)
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