The privately held company, based in San Mateo, Calif., makes the Akimbo Player, a set-top box that delivers hundreds of videos to television by way of Internet downloads. Seattle-based Amazon will be the exclusive retailer of the player through December, according to the company.
The device is now on sale at Amazon, though it hasn't started shipping, according to the retailer's site. An Akimbo representative said it should begin shipping next week. The company had originally hoped to launch the service in May.
Akimbo is similar to Apple Computer's iTunes and the iPod, but for video rather than music. The Akimbo Service, available by monthly subscription of about $10, hosts thousands of on-demand and largely niche programs, which are constantly updated and can range from yoga how-tos and CNN news to children's shows and surfing videos. The Akimbo Player, which Amazon will sell for about $230, is a set-top box that stores as many as 400 programs of the subscribers' choice and acts as a conduit for delivery from the Internet to the television.
People "can experience the feeling of being in control of what they see with Akimbo's 'queue and view' TV experience--watching only what they choose, whenever they want it," Akimbo founder Steve Shannon said in a statement.
Akimbo has competition, however. Dave TV is another emerging video-on-demand player and service. Disney's Moviebeam, a video-on-demand (VOD) service for films, is planning wider distribution in the coming year. And others, including TiVo and Netflix, are developing on-demand video services for 2005.
Just recently, Amazon was said to be preparing an online DVD rental service, too. But Amazon's service would let people rent and receive movies through the U.S. postal system rather than via download.
Still, Akimbo's Shannon is looking at multiple avenues to become the largest VOD service for the television. He said he plans to license the Akimbo service to other set-top box makers. And Shannon said at a recent industry conference that he has held talks with movie studios about bringing pay-per-view movies to the service.
Akimbo is backed by venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.