With FireTV, Amazon made millions of televisions smart. Now the group is going one step further – and is offering full-fledged televisions as its own brand.
Diapers, batteries, charging cables or T-shirts: more and more products on Amazon are owned by the mail order company. The latest development goes a big step further: Instead of restricting itself to streaming sticks and cooperations in the TV sector, the retail giant now also has a series of its own TVs on offer.
This is what the group announced with its latest innovations to the popular FireTV products. In addition to the streaming sticks and boxes, Amazon now also has a number of TV sets with Amazon branding on offer, which are offered under the names “Amazon Fire TV 4” and “Amazon Fire TV Omni”.
Attractive prices
In terms of price, the devices are very attractive. The FireTV 4 is available in three sizes, 43, 50 and 55 inches, and prices range between $ 370 and $ 520. The Omni models with the same screen diagonals cost $ 40 more each; there are also two larger models in 65 inches for $ 830 and 75 inches for $ 1,100. All devices should go on sale from October, unfortunately initially only in the USA.
The Omni devices stand out primarily due to their slimmer design and the slightly narrower edge around the display. Technically, the smaller FireTV 4 and the Omni devices of the same size only differ in one point according to the data known up to now: The Omni devices also have microphones that enable hands-free control via Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa. It looks a little different with the two larger omni devices: They also bring added value in terms of image technology. All devices offer 4K resolution as well as the HDR standards HDR10 and HLG. Support for DolbyVision is only added to the two high-end models.
Although Amazon also manufactures other devices itself, the new devices are likely to be mainly relabeled televisions from a third-party manufacturer, which internal reports had already pierced. As a result, the Amazon TVs are devices from the production of the Chinese group TCL. This is also indicated by the identical arrangement of the connections on the back.
Battle for the US market
For Amazon, entering the TV business is primarily about making the FireTV’s own user interface the standard interface of the television. While the user interface is mainly interesting because of the open design and the fast response time as well as the support from Alexa, it offers Amazon a completely different advantage – namely the option to sell the premium subscription Prime as well as individual films and series, that are prominently offered on the surface.
While Amazon has clearly established itself with streaming boxes in Germany, it is only in second place at home. The service provider Roku dominates the trade in streaming boxes there, and the Roku operating system is also used by many TV companies because of its popularity. Brands used, also by TCL. With its own, very affordable TV brand, Amazon could now try to break its hegemony.
It is not the group’s first foray into the TV market. At the beginning of the year, a TV set was offered for the first time under its own brand Amazon Basic, but only on the Indian market. As early as 2019, the group presented televisions with the Fire operating system at the IFA, but they ran as so-called editions from manufacturers such as Medion. Amazon is continuing to pursue this model: together with the new Fire TV devices, cooperation with Toshiba and Philips has also been announced. It is not yet known whether and when the new Amazon televisions will also come to Germany.
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