Roku Partners with Sharp to Bring Us Baked-In Streaming Hardware

Have you ever wondered why you even need a dongle or a tiny black or purple box next to your TV to stream your favorite shows with your favorite streaming services? Wouldn’t you rather put that $50 worth of hardware inside your television and save yourself an HDMI port, an AC plug and a few cables behind your television?  And why are all of the “Smart TV” interfaces and apps so second rate?  Well today is the first step towards what the future will probably look like.

Roku has partnered with Sharp television to bring you the first mainstream, built-in streaming hardware combination. Now, they’ve made a few deals with Chinese companies in the past but this is the first time Roku has partnered with a brand that your Grandma would recognize. It’s sure to catch the eye of any prospective television purchaser looking to cut the cord in the near future.

Unfortunately, reports say that the Roku enabled Sharp TVs will be marketed “towards the low end” so if you’re looking for that dream home-theater system with 4K video, deep, rich black reproduction and silky smooth framerates you’ll probably have to continue to use the external Roku device to get your fix.

This should also simplify app development a bit for companies like Netflix and HBO.  It’s tough to support infinite hardware and a consolidation like this can only mean good news for their development teams.

This is a no-brainer as far as this cord-cutter is concerned. There’s no need for a dongle or a separate box. Just update the software periodically and make sure the hardware within a television is built to handle the future (don’t skimp on the latest technology, Roku and Sharp!).  They could even make the Roku hardware removable somehow so that upgrades could theoretically be possible in the future.  We’ll keep you up to date on all of the big deals like this one that are shaping the streaming world.