While Amazon hasn’t been the kind of Android manufacturer we’re used to, they’ve become a sizable force thanks to their both reasonably priced and powerful Kindle Fire tablets. Not to mention their Amazon App Store that many people use regardless of owning a Kindle Fire or not. The online giant forked Android long ago to make their first generation Kindle Fire and they’ve been slowly iterating on the Fire OS ever since then and now, it looks like they feel it’s ready for the big screen. This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard of an Amazon TV box and we’re pretty sure that it won’t be the last, this latest report points to a launch as early as March.
According to re/code, whom have sources “familiar with the matter” have said that Amazon is once again readying their TV box for market and that this time, they’re more than ready to pull the trigger. The device is going to be running Android, but what isn’t clear is whether or not it’ll feature game support a la consoles such as the Ouya and the M.O.J.O. Apparently, Amazon has been lining up the right bits and pieces to make such a thing happen, by hiring game developers and such, but this part of the equation remains unclear.
For Amazon to launch an Android-powered set-top box actually makes a lot of sense for the eCommerce giant. After all, Netflix – their biggest competitor when it comes to entertainment – runs on practically anything and the company has been selling music and movies for years now. A reasonably priced box would be a brilliant foot in the door of the living room and we can easily see the company being aggressive on pricing. Hooking other services into it though would be key, nobody wants to watch content from just one source any more and a TV box might be the lesson Amazon needs to learn to let others play ball as well.