Roku has an app problem, but it's working on solutions

Roku’s streaming-media players have always stood out from the competition with a simple formula: Affordable hardware, plus an app selection unrivaled in its quality and diversity. But the platform's app selection is deteriorating even as the company's players become ever more affordable with the new Express, Premiere, and Ultra models announced this week.

Roku is no longer the primary destination for some major content providers, such as PlayStation Vue and Twitter, and when those providers do get around to supporting Roku, the quality of their apps doesn’t match what's available on other platforms. Roku seems to recognize the issue, there are some major improvements to its app-development tools on the way. Still, it’s unclear whether those tools will be good enough, or whether developers will even take advantage of them.

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