The TV boxes of the Fire TV series are a huge success for Amazon. According to one company spokesman, 37 million people are using the devices to bring Amazon's Prime Video Internet TV service to the TV, as well as many other online TV services, such as the public broadcasters' media libraries ,
Shortly before the beginning of the technology fair Ifa on Friday announced the US company on Wednesday evening in Berlin the first television, in which the technology of its TV boxes is already integrated, including Alexa voice control. To the customers opposite such TV sets are marked with the Amazon logo "Fire tv edition".
The first of these produced for Germany and Austria Amazon TVs are offered by the former traditional brand Grundig. They can be pre-ordered from Amazon and will be delivered in mid-November. The high-end models in the new series have OLED screens that Grundig purchases from LG. They feature UHD (4K) resolution, Dolby Vision and HDR technology - terms that promise at least good picture quality.
With microphones or with voice remote control?
At the presentation in Berlin, Amazon did not focus on image quality, but on the ability to control devices with voice commands. In the models titled "Hands-Free with Alexa", eight microphones are built in to watch over anyone saying the codeword "Alexa", which serves as an introduction to voice commands such as "Switch to ZDF". With a button on the front to the microphones can be turned off, as in Amazon's echo speakers.
Those who use the integrated Fire TV technology, but do not want to constantly feel that Alexa is listening, can order the TV also in the version "voice control with Alexa". These devices are 100 euros cheaper and come without built-in microphones. Instead, Amazon adds a remote control whose microphone is activated only at the touch of a button.
Both variants are not cheap. In 55-inch format, the "Grundig OLED - Fire TV Edition (55 VLO 8589) costs 139 cm (55 inches) OLED TV" with voice remote control 1199 euros, with built-in microphones 1299 euros. The version with 65-inch screen size is each 1000 euros more expensive.
An Amazon TV from Media Markt Saturn
It gets cheaper, if you do without Hands Free, big screens and Ultra-HD. In 32-inch format Grundig offers a TV with Amazon technology already for 240 euros. Overall, the company offers a dozen Fire TV TVs in various price ranges.
Still spongy, but in the long run very important for Amazon, the announcement of Imtron GmbH, under the mark ok. TV with Fire TV technology to offer. Imtron is a subsidiary of the MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group and manufactures the electronic products offered under the Group's own brands.
The company does not yet have a finished Amazon TV - but it has announced that they want the first models of the own brand ok. "in the coming year in Germany and Austria" on the market.
For the United Kingdom Amazon announced similar plans in cooperation with the Dixons Carphone chain. In the US, the company has already sold millions of Toshiba and Insignia TVs equipped with Fire TV technology through the retail chain Best Buy.
Off to the living room
In addition to recruiting new subscribers for its prime and prime video service, Amazon is likely to be particularly interested in how its customers use their Fire TV sets, which films and series they watch. Unlike linear TV, providers of streaming services can understand in great detail what their customers like.
Above all, however, the Ifa shows unmistakably how much Amazon is trying to get into the living rooms of its customers with more and more hardware. In addition to TV equipment from its partner companies, the group announced in Berlin a sound bar with Alexa voice control. It is manufactured by the company Anker, which has made its name especially with additional batteries, the so-called power banks.
In addition, the US group has introduced a new TV box in Berlin, the Fire TV cube. The 120-euro device, about the size of a magic cube, can bring various Internet video services, from Amazon Prime Video to YouTube, in 4K resolution on the TV. Unlike Amazon's previously offered in Germany TV boxes, this model is equipped with eight microphones, so Alexa can hear the user even if its commands come from the farthest corner of the living room.
