OTT specialist, Roku, announced Monday that it has significantly reduced the prices of the three set-top boxes that make up its product line: the Roku SD is now priced at $59.99 (i.e. $20 less than before), while the Roku HD and HD-XR are now priced at $69.99 and $99.99 respectively (i.e. $30 less than before). All three models have integrated WiFi; the HD supports HD streaming via HDMI and component, while the HD-XR has all the features offered by the HD, but adds dual-band WiFi N and a USB port.
The news of Roku's price reductions comes just two days before Apple is expected to unveil a new version of its Apple TV OTT platform (rumored to be branded as the Apple iTV and priced at $99) at an event in San Francisco. Roku appeared to refer to Apple's plans in the press release in which it announced the price reductions: "While competitive products (both current and yet to be announced) are being offered at $99 or higher, don't always include integrated WiFi, and don't have nearly the channel offerings that we do," the release stated, "we feel like Roku is still a huge value leader in this space and will continue to be well-positioned as competitive offerings are introduced this fall."
Roku also said Monday that it plans to offer 1080p streaming support on its HD-XR box later this year via a free software upgrade. The company says that, because most of its content partners currently stream in 720p, the 1080p upgrade is "primarily focused on personal content streaming from a USB drive."
