Roku has been successful with its set top boxes that offer consumers a way to stream video from lots of different channels on their TVs, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video and more. Today the company announced an all new product that will go on sale later in 2012 that reduces the Roku device down to a small USB-like stick.
The product is the Roku Streaming Stick and it"s designed to be hooked up into a TV or monitor"s HDMI port, if that port is MHL-compatible. The device will have WiFi capabilities and will allow compatible TVs to have all of the Roku features and channels without the need for the normal set-top box.
Roku"s product was already pretty small to begin with but this new Streaming Stick should open up Roku to an even larger audience for its streaming video devices. TV makers could even bundle the stick with new TVs if they wished. Best Buy will start selling the product sometime this fall, including bundling the device with its in-house Insignia TVs. Pricing has yet to be revealed.
Roku also announced today that so far its set-top boxes have sold over 2.5 million units since first going on sale in 2008. That"s quite a lot considering that the company hasn"t done a ton of mainstream advertising or marketing for the product.