Lights Out: Roku Abandons Smart Home Devices After $22 Billion Fox Deal
Turn out the lights, the party's over! Only going forward, you'll either have to turn them off manually or find a smart home device maker that is still in the game, which is not Roku. Months after Fox announced it was acquiring Roku in a $22 billion deal, Roku dropped a bit of a bombshell, confirming in a statement that it is abandoning the smart home device market.
The good news for fans of Roku is that the brand itself is not winding down, and it still intends on making and selling smart TVs and streaming sticks to rival Amazon and Google. However, devices like smart cameras, smart lights, and video doorbells are getting axed from future development. The reason? Roku wants to focus its efforts entirely on streaming.
"We’re sharpening our focus on Roku’s core mission: being the top streaming platform. As part of that, we plan to wind down sales of smart home hardware and will provide continued support and services for Roku Smart Home products," a Roku spokesperson said in a statement to Lowpass.
What that continued support actually looks like going forward remains to be seen, but if you're in the market for a smart home refresh, we recommend avoiding Roku's devices due to the uncertainty. There are too many other options out there, including fleshed-out lineups from the likes of Arlo, Blink (owned by Amazon), Eufy, Google, TP-Link, Logitech, Ring (also owned by Amazon), Wyze, and others.
It will also be interesting to see what Roku does in the streaming space after it winds down its smart home device category. Notably, Roku recently crashed the OLED TV party with reasonably affordable models starting at $999.99:
Roku also has an extensive lineup of streaming devices, many of which are confirmed for chunky Black Friday discounts starting on November 19. So while Roku is ditching its smart home lineup (many of which are already sold out on its website), the brand is not going away.
