Amazon is introducing its Fire TV stick, claiming more power and superior performance compared to Google’s Chromecast.
The Fire TV Stick costs $39 and is available for pre-order in the US and will ship November 19.
“Fire TV Stick is the most powerful streaming media stick available—a dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, dual-band and dual-antenna Wi-Fi, included remote control, voice search with our free mobile app, easy set-up, an open ecosystem, and exclusive features like ASAP for instant streaming,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO.
The Fire TV Stick delivers instant access to video and music services such as Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu, WatchESPN, NBA Game Time, Twitch, Showtime Anytime, Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, Vevo, Plex, A&E, PBS, PBS Kkids, Watch Disney Channel, YouTube.com, and more.
The number of video services and games available on Amazon Fire TV has tripled in just seven months, with more services and games being added every week. You can also rent or purchase over 200,000 movies and TV episodes from Amazon Instant Video, which has the world’s largest selection of videos to rent or buy, including new releases and blockbusters.
The new device has a dual-core processor, 1 GB RAM, and 8 GB storage for fast and fluid navigation and instant search results. Fire TV Stick claims 50% more processing power and twice the memory of Chromecast; it has six times the processing power, twice the memory, and 32x the storage of Roku Streaming Stick.
In order to back up its claims, Amazon published the below comparison chart.
In related news, Amazon announced that Fire TV’s selection has tripled since its launch in April, with over 600 apps and games now available.
“We continue to hear from customers how much they love the selection available to them on their Amazon Fire TV. In just over six months we’ve tripled the catalog and we’re adding new customer favorites on a weekly basis,” said Steve Rabuchin, VP, Amazon Appstore.
“We also hear from customers how much they love playing games on their TV—9 of the top 10 grossing apps on Fire TV are games—so we continue to work with game developers and add the most popular game content. Dungeon Quest, Spoiler Alert, Leo’s Fortune and Ninja Hero Cats, are some of the new games recently launched on Fire TV, and, coming soon, NBA 2K15.”
Amazon also said the most popular media apps and services are Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube.com, Plex, Pandora, WatchESPN, VEVO – Watch Music Videos, iHeartRadio, Crackle.
