FixYa’s report finds consumers dissatisfied with web TV box-top products; Google TV and Apple TV register major issues, with Boxee and Roku garnering higher praise.
San Mateo, CA – Today FixYa, the leading product Q&A destination on the web, announces the first-ever report comparing consumer issues across all the most popular web TV systems including Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee and Roku. With Internet-connected TV poised to reach 500 million devices by 2015, the market is on the verge of exploding in scale. FixYa’s latest Web TV Report, released today, looks at market-leading products and pits them head-to-head, basing its findings on thousands of troubleshooting requests.
With the recent Apple TV upgrade, rumors of a full-fledged smart TV built by Apple, and even Intel jumping into the mix, consumers are increasingly intrigued by the promises of web TV. However, the market for web TV products continues to be an opaque one, with consumers often confused by the pros and cons of each product. The FixYa Web TV Report seeks to cut through the fog by looking at the main troubleshooting trends across the four standout players.
Below is a summary of FixYa’s Web TV Report findings:
- Apple TV’s iTunes connectivity is its most appealing feature, but also its most troubling.
- Google TV is plagued by a lack of content, making it the worst value for consumers.
- The Boxee Box is the most widely respected web TV device for users looking to take full advantage of web TV services. Consumers rank this as the best choice, overall.
- Roku’s simplicity, price point, and reliability provide a good option for users new to web TV.
- Web TV in general has not gained much traction with mainstream consumers due to uncertainty in the benefits of owning a web TV product. Meanwhile, consumers who have jumped on the Web TV train are disappointed that their set-top boxes cannot record content.
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Welcome to the second edition of Takeoff Tuesday, a weekly feature on the FixYa blog that highlights the new site features that were released on Tuesday morning.
Along with giving you an idea of what new tools you will be able to use, this feature allows you to send us feedback on what is awesome and what you would like to see added in the future.
Just like last week we have a minor addition that will improve your interaction with FixYa. Unlike the Edit Categories feature however, which will be used by Experts to improve their ability to solve questions when they are on the site, our new Email Settings page is meant to improve interaction with FixYa when you are offline.
As many of you have told us, the email updates FixYa sends when someone comments on a thread is invaluable. It gives you the power to stay involved in all of your conversations without manually checking the thread every day. It’s effective, non-intrusive, and an integral part of your experience on the site.
Although this is all well and good, we also understand that no two users are the same. Some enjoy staying constantly plugged in while others only want to think about FixYa when they are on FixYa. And while this set of users is small based off the feedback we’ve received in the past, it’s also very important for us to accommodate everyone’s needs as we strive to create the best site experience we can.
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FixYa is proud to announce the release of the Experts Leaderboard, a brand new feature which tracks Experts’ activity over the course of a week. Along with giving our best Experts the ability to see where they stand in regards to their peers, this Leaderboard highlights all of our phenomenal Experts and gives them a dedicated place on the site that celebrates their accomplishments.
An Expert’s score is the total number of points they have earned during the week. Experts earn the majority of their points by solving questions, and bonus points are given out for a solution that receives a positive rating from the community or solutions that are posted within a few hours of the question being asked.
Another front-end feature we released today was the addition of the Top Experts Leaderboard teaser that can be found on the FixYa Home Page. This teaser gives us the ability to do the exact same thing as the Top Experts Leaderboard– celebrate the accomplishments of our Experts– as well as keep each and every user on FixYa up to date on which Experts are truly the cream of the crop.
The Leaderboard wouldn’t be complete without recognition for the number one spot of course, and on that front we have delivered as well. A Top Expert achievement badge will be bestowed upon the #1 Expert at the end of the week, giving that Expert the deserved recognition for a job very well done.
If you see an Expert with that badge solving your questions you can be certain you are in the best of hands.
For more information on our Top Experts leaderboard, please click here. If you’re looking for more information on the Top Experts badge, please click here.
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FixYa, the leading product Q&A destination, is proud to unveil its FixMas 2011 holiday report, detailing the most popular consumer electronics items of the holiday season and their reliability head to head against competing products.
The holidays may be over, and the gifts unwrapped, but proud new device owners could just now be discovering a sea of problems with their new gadgets. This holiday’s report reveals the most popular problems experienced by consumers from November 2011 to the start of January 2012.
The report releases a number of troubleshooting lists (below), including the top smartphones, top tablets, and top game consoles of the holiday season, with details of major issues for each product. For example, the FixMas report finds that the iPhone is plagued by battery problems, while Apple’s iPad is found to be much more reliable than competing tablets and e-readers.
In addition, FixYa’s detailed product troubleshooting census uncovered a number of surprising results:
- The iPhone tops the list of troubleshooting requests for smartphones, with a whopping 40% of the issues related to the battery.
- Non-touchscreen smartphones such as the BlackBerry Curve and Nokia E63 have few troubleshooting requests than their touchscreen cousins, like Samsung Galaxy phones and iPhones.
- The iPad is found to be far more reliable than competing Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy and Coby Kyros, which tend to have many more touchscreen-related issues like screen freezes.
- Gaming consoles in general (XBox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Wii) require the largest amount of troubleshooting, being responsible for just over 60 percent of the total questions asked by FixYa users during the holiday season.
FixYa brings consumers the most comprehensive solution database in the world. FixYa’s FixMas data was generated from over 20 million users, 650,000 experts, and 10 million product problems and solutions. FixYa’s unique access to crowd-sourced product Q&A from consumers, grants the company transparent data that no other service can claim to provide. FixYa’s troubleshooting data comes from real-life consumer experience with products and product problems.
The graphs generated from FixYa’s FixMas data report can be seen by clicking “Continue Reading” below.
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Here at FixYa we are proud of our efforts to constantly improve the user experience. Every day we come to the office we have one goal in mind– make our site as intuitive and enjoyable as possible for all of you.
Today we have made two small but important changes to our user experience that will help both Experts and askers alike.
For starters, many have already noticed the improvements to our search function located in the top right hand corner of your home page.
Instead of an auto-fill occurring within the confines of the search box, we now offer users a list of 7 thread pages (complete with question and solution) based on what you are currently searching for. Along with having a sleek design that looks great in action, the tool is a huge benefit for users looking for a quick solution to their problem.
No more loading and reloading various pages in the archives in an attempt to find a solution, and certainly no more confusion as you desperately try to guess what the best search term might be– type in a phrase, browse the solutions, and enjoy the results in real-time.
It’s that simple.
Although this tool is primarily used by askers searching through previous solutions, our Experts have seen benefits as well. Since the new search function returns more relevant results than others found across the web, FixYa’s best Experts have more eyes on their top-notch solutions.
This means more opportunity for positive rankings, with Experts (who earn points) and askers (who find solutions) all winning at the same time.
Thumbs up indeed.
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