MediaTek takes Amazon Fire TV territory from Qualcomm

MediaTek, the world's third-largest chip designer, has ousted rival Qualcomm out of the Fire TV, Amazon's best-selling device category. The latest version of the Amazon Fire TV is powered by MediaTek's MT8173, a 64bit quad-core processor and the world's first multimedia SoC with ARM Cortex-A72 cores.

Launched in April last year, the Amazon Fire TV is a digital media player and small network appliance designed to stream digital audio/video content to a high-definition TV. The device also allows users to play video games with an included remote, via a mobile app or with an optional game controller.

The latest version of the Amazon Fire, with 75 per cent more processing power, will be on the market on October 5, selling for less than its original retail price of $99.99, when it was powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600.

"MediaTek and Amazon are focused on providing a premium user experience for consumers," said Joe Chen, SVP of MediaTek. "With MediaTek's processing power at the core of these products, we're confident that Amazon customers will be better served in efficiency and performance."

MediaTek chips will also run new versions of the Amazon Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 10 tablets. The tablets are powered by the MT8135, an up to 1.5GHz quad-core processor that supports a fluid user interface and smooth running HD videos and high frame-rate games.

"Using MediaTek processors to power our devices helps ensure a rich multimedia experience with HD videos that run smoothly, fast and fluid gameplay and long battery life," said Peter Larsen, an Amazon VP.

Amazon has previously used MediaTek chips in the Fire HD 6, Fire HD 7 and Fire HD Kids Edition tablets.

- Alan Patterson
??EE Times