Amazon brings Fire TV edition smart TVs to India, partners Onida

PTI, Dec 11, 2019, 12:17 PM IST

New Delhi: Amazon has partnered Onida to bring Fire TV Edition smart TVs in India, a move aimed at helping the e-commerce company further strengthen its position in the booming consumer durable market in the country.

The Fire TV Edition smart TVs were first introduced by Amazon in 2018 in the US and Canada. Earlier this year, the company expanded the range to the UK, Germany, and Austria in collaborations with Dixons Carphone, MediaMarktSaturn, and Grundig.

“We have seen great momentum to the Fire TV Edition smart TVs so far. India has been a very important market for our streaming product and we are seeing great uptake of it from across the country. We are confident of a similar response to the TVs also,” Sandeep Gupta, Vice President (Fire TV Devices and Experiences) told PTI.

He didn’t comment on the targeted sales.  Amazon works on a licensing model for the Fire TV smart television sets. It has partnered with Onida to roll out products in India and is open to working with other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as well.

“The Onida Fire TV Edition has the Fire TV experience built-in, enabling customers to easily find and watch movies and TV shows from Prime Video, Hotstar, Netflix and others. We are launching two variants and will continue to look at opportunities to expand the range,” he said.

Currently, Amazon sells Fire TV streaming sticks in India. The company claims that Fire TV is the numero uno streaming media player in the US, UK, Germany, India, and Japan across all retailers.

Apart from Fire TV, Amazon also offers a range of Echo (smart speakers) and Kindle (e-book) devices in India.

In the third quarter, Amazon had announced that it has over 37 million active users on Fire TV globally. It does not provide country-specific numbers.

“Onida is excited to work with Amazon to bring the Fire TV experience to India. We have over 38 years of experience building TVs in India and the Onida Fire TV Edition brings superior picture quality and sound output to customers, at affordable prices,” Sunil Shankar Business Head MIRC Electronics Ltd (Onida) said.

The Onida Fire TV smart TVs would be available in two variants — 32-inch (Rs 12,999) and 43-inch (Rs 21,999). These will be available on Amazon.in platform from December 20.

These full HD TVs come with built-in WiFi, 3 HDMI ports, 1 USB port, and 1 earphone port.

The move will also intensify competition with Walmart-backed Flipkart that sells smart TVs through its MarQ brand. Flipkart has recently partnered with Motorola and Nokia to make television sets for them.

Over the last few years, new brands like Micromax, Intex, Xiaomi, Detel, and Vu have taken the television market in India by storm, competing against giants like Samsung, Sony, and LG.