Micro-chips remain scarce and pricey worldwide, and the cost of producing streaming gadgets has never been higher. But for connected TV device makers, it makes no sense to pass the hurt onto the consumer -- they still want to get as many new users on their platforms as possible.
For its part, Roku, which saw revenue from gadget sales decline 19% in the first quarter, is trying to hold the line on consumer pricing. And that results in some good deals on the latest streaming hardware.
For starters, Roku is now bundling its premium "Roku Ultra" player with its Voice Rechargeable Voice Remote Pro in a bundle priced at $99.99. Equipped with a quad-core processor, 4GB of SSD storage (spacious by Roku standards), Dolby Vision, 4K, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos support, as well as the most primo Wi-Fi reception tech, the Ultra had been packaged with the Roku Voice Remote and available for a sale price of $89.99.
Also read: For Fast-Aging Streaming Devices, 8GB Is Not Enough
Last year, Roku introduced a rechargeable version of its voice remote, which includes other nifty features like "lost remote finder" and a "private listening" headphone port, for $30.
With its latest bundle, which hits retail shelves May 15, Roku is including those remote control innovations, but only upping the price by $10. You'd spend 10 bucks on AAA batteries over the next few months, so it's not a bad price point.
Certainly, a bulk of retail attention has been focused on the under-$30 streaming stick/dongle race, but there are consumers who appreciate the benefit of having a powerful computer device that's less likely to buffer, and run out of storage and random access memory.
With that in mind, you can now pick up the 32GB version of the latest Apple TV 4K device on Amazon for $149.99, which is $30 off the regular MSRP. The 64GB version, which will let you store as many SVOD and AVOD apps as you can find on the internet, is discounted on Amazon by $10 to $189.99.
Introduced last year, the Apple TV 4K includes the fastest processor you can find in a streaming gadget, Apples A12 Bionic chip, as well as four times as the usual amount of SSD storage you find in most sticks, pucks and smart TVs.
