It’d be great to download a full season of “The Americans” to watch on a long international flight, but most phones and tablets just don’t have enough storage. Amazon has come up with a way for some users to get around that issue.
The company said today that Android customers in the U.S., UK, Germany, Austria and Japan can now download Amazon Video and Prime Video titles directly to SD cards. Customers can set an SD card as the default download location.
One of the big advantages of Amazon’s streaming service versus competitors like Netflix and Hulu is the ability to download movies and TV shows. Prime members have access to many free movies and TV shows, while non-Prime members can rent and buy titles to stream or download.
Prime Video has long been one of the major benefits of the $99 annual Prime membership. Amazon recently began offering a standalone streaming subscription service for $8.99, as well.
Amazon is making a play to cut into Netflix’s dominance of the streaming market. According to a recent study, Amazon has risen to the third most popular streaming outlet behind only Netflix and YouTube. But Amazon has a long way to go. The study says Amazon now accounts for 4.3 percent of downstream traffic during peak evening viewing hours. Netflix accounts for 35.2 percent of streaming traffic.
