When Google launched Chromecast last year, it kicked up quite a bit of
interest with its ability to easily stream video (or your desktop) wirelessly
from the Chrome browser or various Chrome apps. Now, Amazon is jumping on
the small device streaming wagon, with the Fire TV Stick. Amazon is crowing
about the device’s capabilities — it’s a $40 product with a dual-core processor
(of unknown type), 8GB of on-board storage, and 1GB of RAM. This beats the
Chromecast rather handily — that device is a single-core chip with 512MB of RAM
and just 2GB of storage.
With products like this, however, the real question will be how well it
actually works and how seamlessly it integrates with existing equipment. And
unfortunately, that integration looks fairly closed-off. While Google’s
Chromecast can run on PCs that use Chrome, as well as TVs or Android devices,
that same degree of flexibility isn’t quite baked into Fire TV Stick yet. The PR
states that support for streaming YouTube and Spotify is currently ready, but
Netflix is still “coming soon.” Devices that support Miracast will also work
with Fire TV Stick, and the device comes with a remote control. It’s available
now, and for the next two days — if you’re a Prime subscriber — for $20.
Overall, the Kindle Fire TV Stick still appears to focus on integrating
users more tightly into Amazon’s own set of products. That’s not a bad thing
intrinsically, but we would’ve liked to have seen more integration with PCs and
devices that aren’t manufactured by Amazon. Right now, Kindle Fire TV Stick
seems to be decent value only if you’re thoroughly plugged into the Amazon
world to start with.
Distracting from Fire Phone’s flame out
A cynical person might suggest that Amazon’s song and dance around Fire TV
Stick is actually meant to distract from the abysmal performance of Amazon’s
other device launch this year, the Fire Phone. Reports today indicate that the
company is sitting on unsold
Fire Phone stock worth $83 million, and that’s
after a $170 million writedown on the product.
The Fire TV Stick: Only marginally larger than a piece
of popcorn
We’ve covered the Fire Phone before, and general consensus is that while the
device is a perfectly reasonable smartphone, it’s a reasonable smartphone
selling at an unreasonable price against competitors with better-established
products and a stronger overall software suite. That’s not entirely Amazon’s
fault; much of the disparity is caused by the company’s refusal to completely
toe Google’s party line. Amazon has responded to this criticism by slashing the
price on the Fire Phone in an attempt to move inventory, but the company’s
attempt to launch a high-end device that might capture market share from the
Samsung Galaxy or iPhone product has clearly failed.
There’s no word yet on whether Amazon will follow up with a second-generation
phone, but the company is expecting to be deep in the red this year. It
projects a loss of between $430 and $570 million for the entire fourth quarter.
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