Amazon to Invade Video Streaming Hardware Market With TV Set Top Box
It sounds like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is doing it again--playing the disrupter by using Amazon's massive resources to surgically invade a new market segment--and this time, the company is focused on the hardware side of the video streaming market.
Bloomberg, citing “people with knowledge of the matter”, said that Amazon is planning to release a TV set-top box whose primary purpose would be steaming video--presumably from its own Amazon Video on Demand and Amazon Prime services.
This would put the company in direct competition with the likes of Roku, Boxee, and Apple, as well as Microsoft and Sony, whose consoles let users stream video, as well. Such a move would also give Amazon another vector for money-making in its competition with companies such as Netflix and Hulu that offer streaming video but not any hardware. Further, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see an Amazon set-top box that could also run some apps from the company’s app store.
This development might also portend a future where Amazon functions as a de facto TV provider; it already has bountiful video available for streaming, and we know that the company is (like Netflix) planning its own original programming. With its own streaming box connected to your TV, Amazon could hit the trifecta.
Bloomberg, citing “people with knowledge of the matter”, said that Amazon is planning to release a TV set-top box whose primary purpose would be steaming video--presumably from its own Amazon Video on Demand and Amazon Prime services.
This would put the company in direct competition with the likes of Roku, Boxee, and Apple, as well as Microsoft and Sony, whose consoles let users stream video, as well. Such a move would also give Amazon another vector for money-making in its competition with companies such as Netflix and Hulu that offer streaming video but not any hardware. Further, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see an Amazon set-top box that could also run some apps from the company’s app store.
This development might also portend a future where Amazon functions as a de facto TV provider; it already has bountiful video available for streaming, and we know that the company is (like Netflix) planning its own original programming. With its own streaming box connected to your TV, Amazon could hit the trifecta.
