Technology company Amazon is expected to debut a new line of Amazon-branded television sets as soon as next month, according to a report.
On Thursday, financial publication Business Insider said Amazon has been quietly working on a television set developed in-house as well as Amazon-branded sets manufactured by third parties for more than two years, with workers at the company’s Lab126 and Amazon Devices divisions assigned to the project.
Amazon has licensed its Fire TV operating system to third party television manufacturers in the past, with companies like Toshiba and Best Buy’s Insignia making the sets that are branded under the “Fire TV Edition” name.
The new sets developed by Amazon will be different: Rather than licensing the operating system, Amazon employed a top-down development approach, and the new sets will carry Amazon’s brand name instead of any third party manufacturer similar to the AmazonBasics line of hardware.
Amazon has already signed on TCL as a partner manufacturer, Business Insider said. It is also developing a TV set that will be built by Amazon itself, the publication claimed.
Amazon currently sells a branded television set in India starting at $500 for a 50-inch screen. The set includes the Fire TV operating system as well as the ability to command Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa without a secondary device.
