Amazon Will Go Head-To-Head Against Apple TV With New Kindle Box [Report]

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Amazon is reportedly ready to take on the likes of the Apple TV and Roku with a set-top box of its own, presumably some sort of Kindle Box.

Accordng to Business Week, Amazon is going to introduce a Kindle TV set-top box this fall that will deeply integrate the e-commerce behemoth’s Video on Demand Store, and its Instant Video service available to Amazon Prime subscribers.

The set-top box initiative is being handled by Amazon’s Lab126 division in Cupertino, and is being run by Malachy Moynihan, an ex-Apple vet who spent nine years at Infinite Loop in the 80s and 90s before moving on to become the vice president of emerging video products at Cisco Systems. A forkmer top engineer at Tivo and a former architect from ReplayTV are helping.

Amazon’s been making a bigger and bigger push into video lately, culminating with a recent push into original content by producing up to 14 pilot episodes of prospective television shows the company would like to create, a la Netflix’s House of Cards.

Speaking of Netflix, Business Week isn’t sure whether or not Amazon would allow streaming competitors on its Kindle Box, but Amazon already allows Netflix, Hulu and the like access to the Kindle Fire. Presumably you’d also be able to use these streaming subscription services on your Kindle TV box, although Amazon’s own offerings would be more deeply integrated and prominently placed.

It’s getting crowded in Apple’s “hobby” market segment, isn’t it? Amazon’s Kindle Box, though, could be uniquely situated to compete with Cupertino in at least one way the competition can’t, though: an AirPlay-like second screen experience provided by the Kindle Fire.

Source: Business Week

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