FireTV Places Amazon’s In A New Market

By Nicole Sims 

Jeff Bezos has just opened the floodgates for further branding Amazon as a tech company.

Amazon’s new product, FireTV, puts the retail turned content provider among the competition of Apple TV and Xbox One. This new technology helps to further brand Amazon as a serious contender for consumers in the overcrowded market of set-top boxes, and competitive streaming industry.

The small .7-inch box connects to the TV by an HDMI cable, is run on Wi-Fi and streams at 1080p high definition broadcasts. The box can be purchased at Amazon for $99, and in a statement made by Bezos, he calls it a “tiny box [with] huge specs, tons of content [at an] incredible price.” Among the list of pre-loaded content, the box comes equipped with Hulu, Pandora, YouTube, Showtime, WatchESPN, and even a 30 day free-trial of Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Compared to competitors, FireTV operates on a quad core processor, as oppose to Roku’s dual-core, and Apple TV’s single-core processor. Although larger processors don’t always mean faster content, according to tweets made by BTIG analyst, Rich Greenfield, FireTV will deliver on being three times as fast as its competitors. For consumers, this means faster streaming of programs, apps, and software. Users will no longer have to wait for content to load or buffer, providing seamless streaming of movies, games, and even photos.

FireTV also comes equipped with 2 GB of memory which is somewhere between two times, to four times as much memory of competitors. The box also comes with an X-ray feature, which makes it possible to recall metadata for whatever you’re watching. This feature can be used on movies, television shows, and even music . The box’s remote even has voice search capabilities, which as Bezos said, “means no more typing on an alphabet grid,” which can be pretty redundant to type in on a TV remote.

The FireTV is an attempt to bring simplicity into the living room’s across the nation, and based on the size, speed and software, it’s likely consumers will be willing to give Amazon a chance.

 

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