It appears that streaming video service provider Boxee (News - Alert) may not be doing so well, according to an article from Business Insider. The company, which provides streaming video to PCs and iPads as well as to televisions hooked up to a Boxee Box, may have only sold about 200,000 of its Boxee Boxes since the products November 2010 release date.
Yeah, that's only 200,000 units in just under a year and a half.
The Business Insider article, which references a tweet sent by Boxee's official Twitter (News - Alert) account, goes on to state that the company has since denied this number, saying it was posted by an intern who quoted an outdated figure. The "official" response given from Boxee in response to the incident was to send another tweet which states there are 2 million Boxee users currently, adding that D-Link (News - Alert), Boxee's hardware partner, is responsible for hardware sales figures.
This new number, however, just tells us the total number of users using the Boxee streaming service, which includes PC and iPad users.
This isn't an impossible figure to believe since Boxee faces some pretty tough competition from the likes of Roku, which boasts four devices aimed at different markets, and Apple (News - Alert) TV, which has the full force and power of one of America's most popular corporations. Not only that, but television manufacturers like Samsung (News - Alert) and LG, grasping for new features to add to their newer line ups of HDTVs, have been integrating the same essential functionality provided by devices like the Boxee Box into their TVs for the last few years.
Meanwhile, each major console – Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – is capable of streaming Netflix digital content, begging the question: does the average user even need a set top box?
With all of these factors working against set top manufacturers like Boxee, a figure like 200,000 sales does not sound all that surprising. In fact, it almost sounds generous.