In one of the bigger announcements yet relating to the downloading of mobile video, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) said it will start letting Prime Video customers, and those who buy movies and TV shows from its transactional platform, download the product to Android phone SD cards.
The use of SD cards is a novel approach, alleviating the problem of limited storage capacity on mobile devices. (Notably, Apple iOS devices don't have this expansion capability.)
The move gives Amazon an advantage over Netflix in the bid for control of the SVOD market — Netflix has warmed to the idea of downloads, but has yet to render any kind of product announcement.
A survey conducted of SVOD users by Clearleap found that 20 percent of users are confounded by mobile data caps, while 7 percent say Wi-Fi issues trouble them. Downloads could help to alleviate some connectivity issues.
The ability to watch video on the go, of course, is pertinent to the pay-TV industry as well, which is struggling to find adoption of its TV Everywhere initiative.
To date, only Dish Network (NASDAQ: DISH) has made a serious stab at enabling downloads, having debuted the $99 HopperGo storage module earlier this year.
For more:
- read this CNET story
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