Retail giant Walmart is set to challenge the dominance of streaming dongles like Google’s Chromecast or Roku’s Streaming Stick with their very own VUDU Spark. Well, at least according to their FCC filing for the device before its actual retail launch. Documents show that just like its competitors in the market, it’s a stick you plug in to your TV’s HDMI port which will then connect to your WiFi and stream videos to the larger screen from your mobile device of choice.
But before you start planning to buy your first ever streaming stick or give up your current one for one reason or another, the VUDU Spark isn’t as flexible as the others. In fact, according to their FCC filing, it seems to be a dedicated dongle for only for Walmart’s own VUDU streaming service. So that means no Netflix or Hulu or mirroring your Android device. We don’t know if that will still change in the next few weeks, but basically what it does it will ask you to sign in to your VUDU account once it has connected to your WiFi network.
And because since your TV’s HDMI port is probably tucked away on the side or behind, then you would need Zigbee connection, a remote that will work even without line of sight. Their FCC filing indicates that it will have that. But other than those, not much is known about the VUDU Spark, or whether it will have an accompanying app to help you control your video streaming from your smartphone or tablet.
Since, the device seems very limited, chances are Walmart will try to compete in terms of pricing. Other streaming dongles like Chromecast also support VUDU so it would be hard to convince even staunch VUDU users to switch to the Spark due to its limitations. Their only chance would be to price it as low as possible and then try to target VUDU users that don’t have a dongle yet. Let’s wait and see if they will be able to, errr, spark something in the market.
VIA: SlashGear
