Alexa, the world's personal shopper and ever-present voice assistant, could soon find her way out of your speakers and into your television set, potentially opening up a whole new way for advertisers to have a word with you.
Last Thursday, Amazon
Amazon will sell TVs from two lines: the higher-end Omni line and the lower-priced 4-series.
Omni sets will start at $409.99 and will range in size from 43 to 75 inches. Omni TVs will also feature "far-field voice controls," allowing control of Alexa, without a remote, in a way similar to Amazon Echo speakers.
4-series sets will come in sizes of 43, 50, and 55 inches and will start at $369.99. The lower price reflects the fact that 4-series flat screens can only be operated directly through an Alexa-enabled remote.
The TVs are due out on Amazon.com and at Best Buy
Amazon's new venture is hardly its first effort to break into the world of smart TVs. In 2014 it launched the Fire TV Stick, a streaming device that has since gone on to dominate the market. Since 2017 Amazon has sold a line of low-tier, albeit streaming-ready flat screens through the likes of Toshiba
Amazon said none of its existing partnerships would be affected by its plans.
However, by launching its own line of box-tops, Amazon is signaling the faith it has in its own brand. While the Amazon TVs themselves "speak to Amazon's product roadmap - anything customers spend time on, they want to take a shot at," Gene Munster, an analyst at Loup Ventures, told the Wall Street Journal.
Daniel Rausch, Amazon's VP of entertainment devices and services, said the Omni TV, in particular, will help the company expand the market for its voice-based technologies and bring the power of Alexa to even more living rooms.
For Amazon, acquiring a greater market share by bringing said capabilities to even more households is crucial if the company hopes to gain leadership of the nascent connected TV advertising industry. Said industry's value should surpass $4 billion sometime this year, according to EMarketer.
Morgan Stanley
Still, "Fire TV sticks and growing Prime Video user and content offerings are its current [connected TV] foundation, while this new TV is the next step," said Morgan Stanley.
- 1.https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-launch-television-lineup-in-push-to-cement-itself-in-living-rooms-11631192401
- 2.https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-09/amazon-to-sell-a-tv-line-stepping-up-fight-with-roku-and-google
- 3.https://www.tomsguide.com/news/i-thought-amazon-fire-tvs-were-trash-but-the-new-omni-changes-that