Roku's Preemptive Price Cuts
By Harry McCracken | Tuesday, August 31, 2010 at 3:16 am
Internet TV box Roku is about to get scads of new competition–Google TV and Hulu Plus devices and the Boxee Boxfor sure, and maybe an all-new Apple TV. The Roku SD is now $59.99; the Roku HD is $69.99; and the top-of-the-line Roku HD-XR is $99.99. That reflects a $20 price cut for the SD and $30 cuts for the HD and HD-XR, all of which have built-in Wi-Fi networking. And it gets the basic box to a super-low price and the high-end one that should make sense no matter how much the new arrivals go for.
The company is also announcing an upcoming upgrade for the HD-XR model that will permit streaming of 1080p content (although most of the services it includes still top out at 720p).
The Roku boxes were already pleasing products at good prices; now they’re an even better deal. Would buy one? Well, I did get one last month, as a birthday gift. But at this point, unless time was of the essence, I’d wait a bit longer to see what the competition has in store. By December, we should have a good idea how the new gadgets stack up–and it’s possible that we’ll know a lot more about the future of Apple TV as soon as tomorrow.
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August 31st, 2010 at 6:10 am
Roku is more than just Netflix. There are over 50 channels available now. Some are kind of lame but there are at least a dozen I use regularly. Most of the competition just doesn't have as much content available.
August 31st, 2010 at 7:09 am
Stay way from the Roku XR. Despite what it says, the wifi doesn't work with Wireless-N WPA2. The tech support person told me I was out of luck.
I ended up using a wireless bridge. For a different room, I hooked it to a Netgear Powerline adapter, the AV 200+. Works very well.