Walmart’s lineup of Onn-branded streaming devices are some of the cheapest options around if you’re looking to add Google TV into your living room, but even the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer can’t escape the ongoing crunch facing practically every consumer electronic.
Walmart’s Onn 4K Plus, an Apple TV-shaped streaming puck that supports Google TV with full 4K output, appears to have recently received a quiet price hike. Initially priced at $29.88 when it arrived on store shelves last May, it’s since jumped up to $39.88. While that’s still not as expensive as the in-house Google TV Streamer, it does constitute a massive jump in price (relatively speaking, anyway) for what has always been a gadget lineup that punches above its weight. It seems like this price hike hasn’t appear in every region yet— 9to5Google’s Ben Schoon had to use a California-based VPN to see the changes, while I’m seeing the new price live by default — but reports on Reddit have made this clear it’s not a one-off change.
This move arrives after the Onn 4K Plus recently faced stock shortages throughout February, before eventually reappearing on virtual store shelves at its once-typical $30 price point. While there are plenty of logical reasons that could have resulted in Walmart dealing with both stock shortages and price increases, the most obvious culprit is our ongoing RAMageddon. Even with just 2GB of RAM, it’s entirely possible that, with a product priced as low as this, Walmart either had to increase the overall cost of goods to manufacturer each of these streaming pucks, or it had to turn to more expensive suppliers.
In fact, those product shortages seem to be continuing, as the company’s final unit went out of stock while this article was being prepared. If you’re hard-pressed for a streaming stick, Onn’s $20 1080p Streaming Stick is still around — though it too is showing low stock — while the rest of the company’s usual selection is currently completely sold out. Don’t be surprised if price increases are coming to the rest of the Onn-branded lineup, since it appears to be our new reality for budget-focused gadgets. Hey, at least the Google TV Streamer is currently marked down to $80.
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