- By quade
- 30 November 2023
Amazon’s Latest Release: A $195 Thin Client with the Familiar Look of a Fire TV Cube
Amazon Web Services has reimagined one of its most well-known consumer products for use in business settings.
A new software stack has been installed on a Fire TV Cube computer. Buying the gadget as an entertainment streaming device powered by Alexa or as a thin client computer does not affect the hardware in the slightest. It has an Arm CPU with 8 cores, including four that can run at up to 2.2 GHz, and 2GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 16GB of storage. Run on an Android fork based on the Open Source Project, both the Fire TV Cube and Workspaces Thin Client (for now).
Enlarge / The device has HDMI 2.1 input and output, USB 2.0, 10/100 ethernet, and Bluetooth 5.0 support.
Amazon said in a blog post on Sunday that it targets companies with significant staff turnover, like contact and payment processing centers, where AWS customers have reported difficulty in recovering costly, work-issued devices. This is why the company created its thin client program. According to Muneer Mirza, general manager of AWS’ end-user compute, up to 70% of laptops delivered by employers to remote workers are never seen by the employers again, as reported by The Register.
“A lot of times they find those devices walk out the door when the employees walk out the door.”
– AWS Chief Executive Adam Selipsky told SiliconANGLE.
“It came up with the Workspaces Thin Client after speaking with AWS enterprise customers, especially ones giving out laptops, tablets, and other devices to workers working remotely and in places like contact centers, customer service operations, and hospitality with “hundreds to tens of thousands” of workers.”
– Amazon
Changing focus
Amazon’s “new” gadget is released as the company’s consumer electronics segment approaches the end of a challenging year. According to the official blog, with the Workspaces Thin Client, Amazon has “adapted a consumer device into an external hardware product for AWS customers” for the first time.
However, Amazon has already shipped a product that appeared to be intended for consumer usage to the business market. The Astro home robot, which was never made available to the general public, was revealed by Amazon on November 15 to be a commercial security solution that promotes subscription-based add-ons such as personalized and prearranged robot patrol routes.
Enlarge / The GPU in Amazon’s Workspaces Thin Client and Fire TV Cube runs at up to 800 MHz.
Furthermore, this is not the first time an Alexa consumer product has been used for something other than its intended use. For instance, Amazon modified the Echo Show 15 smart display towards the end of the previous year so that it functions similarly to a portable Fire TV.
Over the past year, Amazon has been pulling resources out of its devices section. There have also been rumors that Amazon is promoting less expensive gadgets. In an effort to concentrate more on generative AI, Amazon revealed last week that “several hundred” employees would be let go from the company’s products and services division. This follows 2,000 layoffs that Amazon’s devices and services division previously experienced early this year, in addition to layoffs that were announced in late 2022.
A $46.7 million judgment against Amazon on an Alexa patent battle has severely damaged the company’s consumer tech division. David Limp, the department head, is also leaving this year.
Although Amazon claims to have sold over 200 million Fire TV sets and streaming devices worldwide in March, the market for these products has typically felt more favorable. Amazon is attempting to establish itself in the tiny but developing virtual desktop and thin client industry. Amazon can reduce its financial risk by finding new uses for Fire TV Cubes.
The Thin Client for Amazon Workspaces is priced at $195. The current Fire TV Cube is normally sold by Amazon for between $110 and $140.
