The most recent generation of DMAs, such as Apple TV, Roku and WD Live, have been similar in form to a set-top box (STB), although typically slightly smaller. DMAs do not typically contain a digital tuner, are not typically DVRs, and essentially require internet connectivity, flash memory and software. With this in mind, there is great scope for experimenting with the form factor, and recent announcements have indicated that some vendors are looking away from the set-top box (STB) form, and towards a lighter, USB form. Roku plans to launch its own "Streaming Stick" product in the second half of 2012, which will effectively be a standard Roku DMA within a USB stick form, containing WiFi, memory capacity and Roku software. The Boxee product differs slightly to this - it is effectively an over the air converter, featuring a terrestrial tuner and a demodulator.

However, despite the new form factors, DMAs fit within a broader category of devices that seek to harmonise the delivery of internet content to the TV, and integrate it with existing linear TV. Linear TV content is currently consumed through either a set-top box, or, in the case of free TV, increasingly through an integrated digital TV (iDTV). Internet content on the TV can be consumed through a plethora of existing devices, but for the sake of simplicity we can primarily consider internet-enabled TVs (IETV), connectable STBs and games consoles. A DMA is a then further abstraction of this - a standalone device purely for the sake of streaming internet content. Consumers are currently presented with an overwhelming range of devices all offering a selection of different pieces in the same puzzle.

The question now is one of functionality. Connectable STBs and IETVs offer a potential integrated platform with unified search regardless of content source. So far, the DMA has primarily prospered in the US, aided by two key factors: the emergence of Netflix as an OTT operator; and the lack of a strong free TV market. With these in mind, DMAs have quickly established themselves as the simplest, most user-friendly way to get quick access to internet video - and with the fragmentation amongst IETV platforms and the operator-dependency of connectable STBs, they look likely to prosper again in 2012. But the current generation of DMAs create a clear disconnect between internet content and TV content for the consumer, which STBs and IETVs have the potential, long-term, to fix. It is this lack of integration which Boxee are, in part, attempting to address with the "Live TV" stick, which appends HD free TV content to their offering. This is creating a convergence, where the end-point is the same (linear TV and internet TV within one user interface), but the form varies.

With the "Live TV" stick launching in the US & Canada, Boxee have an existing installed base in this region of approximately 75,000. With this level of installed base, it seems unlikely the strategy here is simply to sell as many of the USB sticks as possible. Rather, it seems more plausible that with the recent boom in sales of DMAs, particularly in the US, Boxee will bundle the USB together with their existing boxes, as a strategy to sell more of their existing products. In fact, this strategy makes sense from a logistical point of view for DMA manufacturers - allowing them to ship identical products globally, with regional DTT tuners attached as a potential add-on depending on the DTT penetration within a country.