Amazon To Put Android In Set-top Box To Compete With Apple, Roku 104
sfcrazy writes "Amazon is all set to get Apple and Roku some serious competition with its own 'web-TV' or set-top box. According to reports, Amazon will be using Google's Android to build the box. Amazon already has a huge library of content (from Amazon Prime) which it can push to the living room through the box. Amazon, like Netflix, is also investing heavily in producing content to their own set-box. Amazon has also been hiring game developers and it won't be surprising if the company also dabbles into gaming." And while it may be only a rumor, the idea's got some reasonable legs: besides the content on Prime, Amazon has been making media-centric Android devices for a few years with its Kindle Fire line.
set box is so '90s (Score:5, Interesting)
I completely understand what Amazon is trying to do, but the whole set-top box thing is a bad play.
Amazon is working from an old playbook. They're trying to do now with this box what M$ did with Xbox...it's why M$ could allow Xbox to run at a loss...it got Microsoft a space on the shelf in the living room.
Shelf space as marketing tool is old news (and was never a good idea)...ex: Netflix
Amazon is going to lose money on this deal. No one wants **another** box....especially one that doesn't do anything that Netflix can't do.
Amazon should work on competing with iTunes, spotify, etc instead of this move...the movie business is almost always a losing proposition for tech...Netflix is an exception that can't easily be supplanted.