It looks like Roku will be moving away from its scheme of naming its devices with numbers, according to a report by Zatz Not Funny.
The report claimed that it correlated a recently leaked filing by Roku with the Federal Communications Commission for an upcoming refresh of its product lineup with information that was acquired from a pair of Canadian channels to determine the names of the new Roku devices.
According to the report, the new names of the Roku devices will be the Roku Express, the Roku Express Plus, the Roku Premiere, the Roku Premiere Plus and the Roku Ultra. This makes for a total of five new streaming devices that will be launched by the company this fall.
The Roku Express and the Roku Express Plus will serve as the replacements for the entry-level Roku, though the difference between the two models remains unclear. It was proposed, however, that the 2016 version of the Roku 1 will have a more powerful processor, with the Roku Express Plus possibly having extra ports or support for the headphone and voice control remote.
The Roku Premiere and Roku Premiere Plus, meanwhile, will take over the product slots currently occupied by the Roku 2 and Roku 3. The devices, however, will feature 4K support, which is not found in the current Roku 2 and Roku 3.
The difference between the Roku Premiere and Roku Premiere Plus is said to be the addition of microSD and Ethernet for the latter. In addition, HDR has been confirmed for the Roku Premiere Plus.
Lastly, the Roku Ultra will be replacing the Roku 4, taking the capabilities of the Roku Premiere Plus and adding a remote locator and an optical out connector, similar to the prior model. The Roku Ultra will also support HDR and is the only device in the 2016 lineup that will feature a USB 2.0 connector to access local media.
The new names will make more sense in the market, as it provides a better description of the devices as opposed to simple numbers. That said, it is not yet known when they will be launched by Roku.
The new Roku streaming devices were said to possibly arrive as early as Sept. 7. However, that might not push through due to certain marketing considerations that Roku mentioned. The products will likely be out before the holiday shopping season begins though, with the prices of the new models expected to roughly be the same as the 2015 editions.
A report by IHS released in June revealed that Roku remains the leading brand in the streaming device category with 29 percent of sales, followed by Google's Chromecast at 20 percent and the Apple TV with 17 percent.
