Amazon is making a TV set-top box

Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos continue to expand beyond online retail into hardware.

• Amazon is making a set-top box that would stream content to a TV, a report says
• The device reportedly will go on sale this fall
• Amazon would likely put its own content front-and-center on the device

(CNN) -- If you're looking for a little black box to put under your TV set and devices like the Roku, Apple TV, or any of the many Google TV boxes aren't doing it for you, Jeff Bezos may have your hookup.

Bloomberg Businessweek is reporting that Amazon is working on its own set-top box centered on its services, and the company will apparently introduce the box in the fall.

Other details about the box itself are light on the ground. All we know for now is that it may share the Kindle branding with the Amazon's line of e-readers and Fire tablets, and that the device is being developed by the company's Lab126 division. (This group is also responsible for the rest of the Kindle hardware.)

 

As with the Kindle e-book library, you don't actually need to own one of Amazon's devices to access Amazon's video content—you can already play Instant Video on consoles like the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 just as you can get Kindle books on your iPad or Android tablet.

Amazon's strategy with the Kindle Fire tablets has been to price them attractively and put its own content front-and-center, as well as give its users special perks like the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. A theoretical Amazon set-top box would likely take a similar approach to distinguish itself from the other little-boxes-with-HDMI-ports that crowd this market.

Amazon's last major hardware announcement was the Kindle Fire HD reveal back in September of 2012. If the company has a similar event around in the fall this year, that's when we'd expect this box to be introduced