Monday, November 14, 2022

Walmart dropping Onn streaming devices?

I've seen a few news articles over the last few days speculating that Walmart is discontinuing its Onn streaming devices.

To me, that's not a big loss, as it's one of the worst streaming device lines. The Onn Streaming Stick is simply junk. I bought one in the summer of 2021 and tested it out. And it failed the test.

It was slow, frustratingly so. And, it would hang up. I won't go on and on about the Onn Streaming Stick, but if you do want to see all the details of my thoughts on it, look at my post about it from June 2021.

There were/are two Onn devices though. The other one was much better. Even being better, it was not one I would recommend. I wrote about it in July 2021 if you want to read about that.

In the last week, there have been reports about the devices not being available for shipping, and not being in stock at several stores. One higher profile article was on 9to5Google:

 In the past few days Walmart has entirely ceased online sales of the Onn 4K and Onn HD, its two Android TV-powered streaming devices. Some users on Reddit found that they could still add the devices to their carts as of early this morning, but we’re currently seeing the device as not available online at all.

Local stock on these streamers also appears to be limited at best. I couldn’t find a single device in stock in the eight stores near me or any other zip codes I tried.

Some readers have reported that the devices are in stock at their stores. No one has reported it available for shipping. It's not in my local Walmart, for instance, and as reported, not available for shipping.

There has been no announcement from Walmart about any discontinuation of the devices, but I would not be surprised about it. In fact, if you recall, before these Walmart shortages being reported, I had speculated about Walmart dropping the line because of the deal Walmart has with Comcast and Charter to carry the new Xumo brand devices.

None of this means I was right. But you know what I think: I was right. What I don't understand, though, is why none of the other places put this together. I'm the only one that seems to have put these things together.

Of course, all this could be a coincidence and the Onn devices may start showing up again. Or newer versions may show up. Time will tell.

In the meantime, if you are wanting a good cheap streaming device for your Streaming Life, I still say to avoid the Onn devices. They're junk. Get a Roku or Fire TV device. Look for the Black Friday -- or Before Black Friday -- sales going on. You can do much better than an Onn streaming device.

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