As if things weren’t looking tough enough for the Apple (AAPL) TV this holiday season, Amazon (AMZN) just lobbed a grenade into the living room in the form of the $39 Fire TV Stick.
While the move will put additional pressure on Apple to update the $99 Apple TV sooner rather than later, Amazon’s decision to offer a cheap HDMI stick version of its Fire TV video streamer is a direct attack on two other companies.
Roku was first to market with a “media streamer in a stick” with 2012’s Streaming Stick, revealed at CES 2012. However, it was Google (GOOG) that really kicked off this craze with the $39 Chromecast.
With the Fire TV Stick being offered to Amazon Prime members for just $19 until 6am (PT) on October 29, it’s time for a fast review of Amazon’s little streamer and the competition.
Is the Fire TV Stick a worthwhile purchase, and should the competition be worried?
Fire TV Stick Competition: Overview of Amazon’s New Micro-Streamer
Amazon just announced the Fire TV Stick, an HDMI plug-in version of its Fire TV set-top box. While it doesn’t offer everything the full-sized Fire TV does (no voice search and less powerful CPU), it still packs a lot of Amazon’s technology into a very compact and inexpensive package.
Key Features:
- Dual-core processor with 1GB RAM, 8GB storage
- HDMI interface with USB power adapter
- 1080p video
- Remote included
- ASAP predictive technology for Amazon Instant Video
- Amazon digital content plus Netflix (NFLX), Hulu Plus, Pandora (P) and others
- Compatible with Fire TV game controller for video games
Price: $39 ($19 for Prime members until October 29), includes 30-day free trials of Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Fire TV Stick Competition: Roku Stick
The Roku Streaming Stick is a favorite of many people.
The privately held company has been a long-time player in the video streaming market and was there first with a streaming stick. That 2012 version had issues (it wasn’t compatible with many TVs for a start), but the current Roku Stick is a solid competitor.
Key Features:
- Dual band (2.4Ghz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi
- HDMI interface with USB power adapter
- 1080p video
- 1,000+ video channels, including Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Hulu Plus
- Roku Channel Store for apps
- Android and iOS screen mirroring
- Includes a remote
Price: $49.99
Fire TV Stick Competition: Chromecast
While Roku has always been popular with video streaming enthusiasts, it was Google that kickstarted the streaming stick market and took it mainstream last year with the Chromecast.
Key Features:
- HDMI interface with USB power adapter
- Content includes YouTube, Netflix, HBO and Hulu Plus
- 2GB storage
- Supports mirroring of content (casting) from iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and Chrome
Price: $35 (includes two-month free trial of Hulu Plus)
Fire TV Stick Competition: Is There a Clear Winner?
It’s obvious from the marketing material that Amazon is gunning for the Chromecast. The first bullet point in the product description boasts the Fire TV Stick offers “4x the storage and 2x the memory of Chromecast.”
Of course, Amazon then goes on to point out the Fire TV Stick packs six times the processing power of the Roku Streaming Stick and 32 times the storage.
In specs alone, the Fire TV Stick wins.
A significantly faster CPU and more storage than the competition should pay off in a more responsive device, with smoother video and more space to cache video locally — so you don’t run into delays while content buffers.
The Chromecast is showing its age against the Fire TV Stick, with just a single-core CPU, less RAM, less storage and only single-band Wi-Fi. It’s also the only one of the three streaming sticks that doesn’t offer an Amazon Instant Video app.
While the Fire TV Stick is the cheapest on the market for a day or so, at its regular $39 price, it’s a few bucks over the Chromecast ($35), but significantly less than the $49 Roku stick.
Amazon may have a winner on its hands, but the Fire TV Stick is going to have a battle to win converts from the developer-friendly Chromecast — a device that also appeals to Android fans.
When it comes to mass market consumers, the Fire TV Stick definitely puts pressure on Google to upgrade its specs, and it’s going to put the squeeze on Roku to lower the price of the Roku Stick. That’s bad news for Roku — unlike Amazon and Google, streaming isn’t a sideline, it’s the company’s primary business.
However, the device that may take the biggest hit out of this development is the Apple TV. Apple is left without its own streaming stick, and the Apple TV is stuck with old hardware at $99.
A $39 Fire TV Stick that does video and video games is not good news for Apple, especially with holidays approaching.
As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
