That gap has likely closed in the year since, if it hasn’t slammed shut. It made $48.2 million on hardware (which also includes soundbars, and other products) in that same period. Last year Vizio noted it made $38.4 million in one quarter just from tracking and monetizing consumer viewing and usage data. Of course it’s challenging because TV manufacturers now make more money collecting and monetizing your personal data than they do selling the actual hardware. Still, it’s not impossible. Samsung makes a 65-inch 4K dumb TV, for example, as does Sceptre, but identifying and finding dumb TVs can be challenging. The big caveat when it comes to dumb TVs is that they are absolutely not the priority in the market, and so it can be difficult to find a dumb TV that has the screen size, resolution, and other features of a smart TV. This Lifehacker article ironically forgot to even list the few models that do exist: There are options, but guides on this front will usually shovel you toward computer monitors (too pricey at large sizes), or business-class displays (ditto). Yet when if you go shopping for “dumb” televisions - as in just a high quality display with a bunch of HDMI ports and not much else, you’re usually going to be out of luck. They also routinely feature embedded OS systems that don’t age well, aren’t always well designed, don’t perform particularly well over time, are slathered with ads, and are usually worse than most third-party game streaming devices or video game consoles. They’ve routinely been shown to have lax security and privacy standards.
Historically, “smart” TVs aren’t always particularly smart.