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Amazon has a new product up its sleeve that it promises will be even bigger than its Kindle devices.
The online retailer posted an advert on events website Eventbrite, inviting people to attend a shindig for the mystery new device, ITProPortal.com reports. “We are working on a new revolutionary V1 product that will allow us to deliver Digital Media to our customers in new ways and disrupt the current marketplace,” the ad reads. “We have teams in various locations partnering on this project, from Sunnyvale (Lab126), Seattle, to right here in Boston. We believe this new product will be even bigger than Kindle!”
So what could it be? An Amazon smart phone has been rumoured for years now, but this doesn’t sound like a handset to me. Amazon is also rumoured to be working on a set-top box, which this sounds more like. Codenamed Cinnamon, the Android-powered set-top box was rumoured to be launching at the end of last year, though obviously that didn’t happen.
Exactly how it’ll “disrupt the marketplace” remains to be seen. That could just be marketing speak.
A rumour did the rounds a while ago that Amazon would offer its rumoured smart phone for free. The company makes very little money on sales of its Kindle Fire hardware, instead making cash on selling e-books, videos and music to enjoy on it. This is how it can flog its tablets so cheap.
The downside for us punters is that the devices are restricted to which services they can use. As we found out in our review, on these shores the Kindle Fire HDX is limited to streaming movies, so no downloading for you.
We’ll have to wait and see if this turns out to be Amazon’s set-top box, and if so, if it’s as hobbled as the company’s tablets. What do you think of Amazon’s hardware? Would you like to see it launch a set-top box? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.
