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Amazon's new Vega-built Fire TV stick gets the Alexa+ hub after Hisense and TCL sets
Amazon cut its Fire TV stick range to three models, with a new $59.99 4K stick built on its own Vega operating system in the middle. Its new Alexa+ hub reaches Hisense and TCL sets in November and that stick only early next year, so the assistant is moving faster than the OS.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- Amazon will keep selling its other existing Fire TV models only while supplies last.
- Amazon says it has added more than 2,000 apps, including Spotify, Xbox and VLC, since releasing its first Vega-based Fire TV product last year.
- Amazon says the stick starts content nearly 20% faster than a similarly priced rival, and its reps declined to tell Variety which competitors it tested.
Compiled by The InvestorSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- contradiction The only device Amazon names as Vega-built is the last named device to get the hub, so this rollout does not show Vega gating new Alexa+ features.
- exposure At least two of the 13 launch countries fall outside the 11-country Alexa+ footprint on Fire TV, so some buyers get a stick sold with Alexa+ out of the box in a market where it is not yet offered.
- precedent Putting Hisense and TCL sets in the first wave makes TVs Amazon does not build a launch channel for new Alexa+ features.
Amazon charges nothing extra for Alexa+ on Fire TV [6], so the better versions of the assistant are sold through the hardware. The 4K stick costs 50% more than the HD, and the 4K Max about 42% more than the 4K [1]. Alexa+ Home Theater comes on the 4K Max and hands-free Alexa+ on the Fire TV Cube [10], a device priced at five times the entry stick [2].
Vega is harder to value from what Amazon published. The release headline names Vega 2.0 [4], while the text says only that the 4K stick is built with Amazon's Vega operating system and ships with Alexa+ and the new Fire TV experience out of the box [3]. The release does not mention Android or say what changes in the second version [4].
The rollout order puts Alexa+ ahead of Vega. Amazon says Alexa+ on Fire TV "won't just be matching keywords; it will be reasoning across a customer's subscriptions, watch history, availability and world context to answer more nuanced questions" [8]. The hub carrying those features reaches US customers in November on the 4K Max (2nd Gen), the Cube, Amazon Ember TV and partner TVs with Fire TV built in, such as Hisense and TCL sets [7]. The new 4K stick and more countries follow early next year [7].
One reading is that the hub needed more work to run on a newer operating system and on a stick with a quad-core 1.7 GHz processor and 8 GB of storage [12], in which case the gap is a schedule. Another is that Amazon wants Alexa+ on as many screens as it can reach, including TVs it does not build, and treats Vega as a separate bet on owning the software. A third takes the three-tier range at Amazon's word, as a way for customers to "more easily shop and find the right one for them" [13].
I think the second reading fits best, because the free pricing [6] and the rollout order [7] both favour reach for the assistant over the operating system. The first reading is the case against that view, and Amazon's timetable fits it too. The view is wrong if Vega devices later get Alexa+ features that the Hisense and TCL sets never receive.
What to watch
- Whether the $39.99 Fire TV Stick HD joins the Alexa+ hub rollout; Variety's device list names it in neither the November nor the early-next-year wave.
- What Amazon says Vega 2.0 changes, and whether later Alexa+ features land on Vega devices before partner TVs.
- Which countries follow the 13-country launch in late October, and whether Alexa+ on Fire TV grows past 11 countries.