Matchstick aims to undercut Chromecast with lower price, open platform
If $35 sounded like a good deal to be able to watch Netflix directly on a TV screen, try $18.
Google brought down the cost of accessing online content on a TV when it released the Chromecast a year ago, providing an alternative to costlier streaming-media boxes such as Apple TV and Roku. The Chromecast, which plugs into an HDMI port, allows a user to tap on a smartphone, tablet or computer app to beam content onto the bigger screen.
Now, a new company pitching itself as the anti-Google is releasing its own content-beaming device called Matchstick. It’ll retail for $25, but Kickstarter backers can get it for $18 with an expected delivery date of February.
Last year, Google drew scorn from app makers for its closed system requiring apps to have the company’s approval before they could take advantage of the Chromecast. Google later opened the door to all apps, though with specific rules and guidelines in place.
Matchstick is touting an open system for which software and hardware details are available to anyone to look over.
“With no limitations, rules or boundaries, app developers can explore their creativity to bring mainstream content to places never accessible before as well as unexpected, creative apps and personalized viewing and interactive experiences that just aren’t available in closed systems,” San Jose-based Matchstick says on Kickstarter. “Matchstick allows for cool, crazy stuff that no one else could deliver.”
The Matchstick has twice the RAM and storage capabilities of a Chromecast. The device runs on Firefox OS, a system designed by Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox Web browser.
“The bigger processor and increased memory gives you a much better video playback cache and increased performance for whatever games and custom overlays you might dream up,” according to the Kickstarter page.
Matchstick said in-house developers will make key apps like Netflix, HBO Go and Pandora work from the start. And it’s telling outside developers that turning Chromecast-compatible apps into Matchstick-ready ones will be simple.
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