I am a developer for a pretty successful channel and will say that we always put a priority on our Roku version over the rest. One main reason is that we piloted this thing on Roku and have long-running relationship with the team over there. Also, our adoption rate on Roku is 10 times greater than the next platform which I believe is Amazon Fire. That said, we talk to people all of the time about which devices they prefer and why, etc. Roku by far is the winner and the main reason is the simple interface. They like the fact that the channels are right there and new ones are easy to discover. It's not cluttered with suggested movies, games, ads, etc. The no clutter comment seems to be very common. Many don't like Amazon Fire because it's the opposite. The UI is cluttered with suggested movies, games, apps, etc. It's also not easy to discover new channels. Apple isn't really a player because people don't like the price or the remote.
That all being said I have been hearing rumors that Roku is going to make the Roku channel the main interface. The Roku channel is great in itself but I think this would be a huge mistake. It would make it like Amazon Fire. Since we are heavily invested in Roku I only want success and adoption of Roku devices in every household. I would hate to see them do something that would no longer give it the edge over the rest. Yes, we are on the "rest" however our channel is harder to find on those platforms and to be honest, the performance is just superior on Roku.
Any feedback from you guys at Roku? By the way, just a hint, we were the ones sending you guys lunch for about a week a few years ago.