{"id":19894,"date":"2026-06-30T03:45:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/amazon-explains-why-fire-tv-ditched-android-for-vegaos-but-only-one-part-makes-sense\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T03:45:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T02:45:45","slug":"amazon-explains-why-fire-tv-ditched-android-for-vegaos-but-only-one-part-makes-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovatenews.site\/index.php\/2026\/06\/30\/amazon-explains-why-fire-tv-ditched-android-for-vegaos-but-only-one-part-makes-sense\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon explains why Fire TV ditched Android for VegaOS, but only one part makes sense"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The topic Amazon explains why Fire TV ditched Android for VegaOS, but only one part makes sense<\/strong> is currently the subject of lively discussion \u2014 readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.<\/p>\n

This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies\u2019 decisions and competitors\u2019 reactions can quickly change the picture.<\/p>\n

Amazon\u2019s Fire TV platform is in the process of ditching Android for an in-house VegaOS, a change that\u2019s been controversial among users. In an interview, Amazon\u2019s VP of Fire TV explains some of the reasoning behind the decision, but only one part really makes sense.<\/p>\n

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In an interview with Cord Busters, Amazon VP of Fire TV, Aidan Marcuss, discussed the platform\u2019s recent shift to VegaOS among other topics. But that\u2019s obviously the most interesting of the bunch, and the interview kicks off with the burning question \u2013 if Fire TV customers adopted this platform because of its openness, why would Amazon move to a closed ecosystem?<\/p>\n

The answer comes in a couple of parts, starting with the one argument that\u2019s hard to ignore. VegaOS is a very lightweight platform and, as such, allows Amazon to build Fire TV hardware that\u2019s even less expensive. Marcuss explained that \u201cVega was an opportunity for us to continue to innovate and deliver more capabilities, even on the least expensive devices,\u201d pointing to the Fire TV Stick 4K Select, which has just 1GB of RAM on board.<\/p>\n

Adding to that, Marcuss pointed to the security side of things, which was \u201csort of upmost in my mind.\u201d He then went on to address the elephant in the room, the rampant use of sideloading on Fire TV to use apps meant for piracy, saying that it\u2019s \u201cnot a Fire TV specific platform truth,\u201d and:<\/p>\n

Apps that facilitate piracy, and other apps, can carry malware\u2026 [there\u2019s] a good amount of evidence that apps can carry unwanted code and behaviour on them when they\u2019re sideloaded.<\/p>\n

From there, the interviewer brought up another big issue with this change \u2013 VegaOS doesn\u2019t work with existing Android-based Fire TV apps, meaning thousands of apps are no longer compatible with newer models.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue we also called out back when Amazon first made the switch. In response, Marcuss points out that consumers aren\u2019t using tens of thousands of apps on their streaming sticks, and that \u201cthe vast, vast, vast majority of content\u201d is already available on Vega, with continued expansions ongoing such as support for VPN apps, a feature that was lacking at launch. As for apps that stream an Android version from the cloud, Amazon\u2019s stopgap for the time being, there\u2019s apparently \u201cno intention\u201d to end that service for developers, though Marcuss stopped short of confirming whether or not developers would have to pay for the service in future.<\/p>\n

As the interviewer points out, Marcuss failed to provide any major reason for consumers to benefit from the switch to VegaOS, despite Amazon having several benefits from the change. That\u2019s all the more notable seeing as VegaOS hardware has, thus far, not been markedly cheaper than the Android-based Fire TV devices. That\u2019s not to say cheaper devices couldn\u2019t be coming, but given current market conditions, that doesn\u2019t feel particularly likely.<\/p>\n