Amazon is reportedly developing its own Android-based gaming console. The company is planning to release the device by the end of this year, most likely by Black Friday.
After starting out as an online bookstore back in 1995, Amazon has become one of the world's largest retailers. The company quickly diversified from solely selling books and began offering consumers all kinds of different items and services. After a few years the company decided it would return to its book roots with its Kindle e-book reader in 2007. It followed what Apple did with the iPod and iTunes, i.e. sell its own hardware that conveniently tied into various services the company was offering. Like the iPod, the Kindle wasn't the first e-reader on the market, but what made it a huge success was the way that Apple and Amazon bundled their own hardware and software services. The Kindle offered users a convenient way to get content onto their devices and in turn would keep customers tied to its ecosystem.
As Amazon saw the tablet market heat up, it decided to make its own foray with an Android-based Kindle Fire tablet. The company even opened its own Amazon App Store for its tablets to use instead of Google's own Play Store. The Kindle Fire tablet is just another vehicle for the company to keep customers tied into the Amazon ecosystem. A new report from Game Informer claims that the company is currently working on its own Android-based gaming console.
"Sources have approached Game Informer with an interesting bit of news from one of the world's largest retailers. Amazon is developing an Android based console for release by the end of this year, most likely by Black Friday."
"According to those we spoke with who have knowledge of the in-development hardware, Amazon will be leveraging the titles already available on its platform. Each day, the company offers one productivity or game app for free and stocks a healthy library for its own devices, like the Kindle Fire. The console will also have its own, dedicated controller."
Amazon would also likely tie in its Instant Video and MP3 services, and possibly allow Android apps, just not games to run on the console. Amazon knows that the living room is the next battleground with companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Sony all creating devices to rule your TV. Amazon has declined to comment when asked about the console.
