Amazon sued over killing Chromecast-era Fire TV Sticks, new update policy confirmed
Amazon faces a lawsuit for rendering older Fire TV Sticks unusable with software updates and has clarified its update policy for newer devices.Summary
Amazon is being sued in a class-action lawsuit alleging that the company “bricked” first and second-generation Fire TV Sticks by ending software support. Users claim that failing software rendered the devices and their remotes inoperable, forcing them to purchase new ones. Amazon ended software support for these devices in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
In response to the lawsuit, Amazon has published a support page detailing its software update commitments for current Fire TV hardware, promising “at least” four years of updates from the date Amazon stops selling a device. This is a new practice, as the company previously did not set timelines for updates on older models.
The lawsuit draws a comparison to Google’s Chromecast, with the first-generation Chromecast receiving software support for a decade after its 2013 launch, and the second-generation model still being supported eleven years after release.
(Source：9to5Google)