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Amazon To Cease Sale of Apple TV and Chromecast
Mark Wilson writes: As of 29 October, shoppers will no longer be able to buy Apple TV or Chromecast devices from Amazon. Citing compatibility issues with Prime Video, Amazon emailed marketplace sellers to inform them it is not accepting new listings for the two media devices, and any existing listings will be removed at the end of October. The move indicates not only the importance Amazon places on its streaming Prime Video service, but also that it views Apple and Google as serious rivals. The two companies have yet to respond to the news, but it is unlikely to be well-received.
Their terms of service and privacy policy make Google look downright disinterested in collecting its users data by comparison.
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If you want me to use your instant and prime video options, the correct course of action would be to make the available everywhere, not to remove products that you refuse to support (and given that I've seen Chromecast apps knocked out in a weekend there's really no excuses). Oh, and make it so that shared prime actually shares all of the prime features instead of just shipping. It's incredibly stupid that prime videos don't work on my phone because my wife's Amazon account has the primary prime account.
How couldn't this be a base for a an anti-trust lawsuit against amazon ?
Unlike on the ebook side of things, Amazon is far from having a monopoly on electronics, but stopping third party vendors from selling certain competing devices definitely leaves a bad taste.
Is Amazon big enough that this will open the eyes of federal regulators?
Compatibility with sales...
Prediction: next week Amazon will announce a brand new product that is super special-- a streaming device that integrates Amazon Prime called AmazonTVCast.
I had been hoping Amazon Prime video would be added to AppleTV. Guess this means pretty much no way that's going to happen.
I had been meaning to order a number of things from Amazon, looks like a great time to explore other purchase options.
Not gonna lie though; probably will keep Prime.
I guess Apple (and Google) would be within bounds to pull the Amazon app, and see who blinks first...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So it's getting serious.
When the ISPs start outright killing your streaming service because it isn't *theirs*, then it's on. Bigtime. Blood in the streets,
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Amazon doesn't offer their Instant Video streaming service in Canada at all, so their reasoning doesn't stand up here in Canada. Will they also be preventing sales of Apple TVs and Chromecast units to Canadians?
Maybe someone just needs to point them to the Chromecast and (new) tvOS SDKs so they can whip up their own Amazon Instant Video apps instead?
Yaz
Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime. It's important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion.
I really wish companies would drop the BS when announcing things like this. Customers aren't going to be confused. Amazon doesn't want to sell products that compete with their own, fine. I just wish they didn't pretend like they were doing this to make customers happier.
I have 70Mbps high speed cable it but has a 350Gb cap
I found your problem...
The fundamental issue seems to be that Amazon is very poorly managed.
Amazon has junky web pages that try to sell me other things before I've finished reading about the item that interests me. There are many offers on Amazon, by other vendors, that try to take advantage of the customer.
Should Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos be talking about going into space when he isn't managing Amazon well?
It seems to me that Bezos is tired and overloaded and should be replaced.
you migrate to whichever private island your credit cards are more familiar with, and that's how it's gonna be.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Is Amazon not on Apple TV because Apple refuses to allow it, or because Amazon won't develop the channel? I'm too tired to trust Google for answers, plus you guys are smart.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
I have to wonder why it is that after all this time Apple does not have Amazon Prime...
It wouldn't seem like Apple would care, Apple doesn't run a Netflix like service, it would just be another thing that would make AppleTV better.
Amazon obviously wants people to adopt Prime more and a large vector for that happening would be AppleTV adoption.
Both have substantial things to win, and very little to lose by Prime Video being on the AppleTV. So who is blocking what?
I had a second thought about Prime not being on AppleTV though - Since Amazon can just do an app, I think they will be on AppleTV near launch.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Other than being a bit on the unethical/immoral side, this decision is questionable for the benefit it will give to Amazon. Instead of trying to improve their products to make them better and more lucrative to competition, Amazon is trying to stop people buying competitive products through their store. This will not stop people who want to get Apple TV or Chromcast to get it. The only effect this decision has is to show their true face, and lose whatever faith people had in them. I don't see how the outcome will be good for them by this decision..
I don't want their Fire devices just to watch a damn video stream. Compatibility issues my ass.
add some QoS policies to your router to restrict the bandwidth of Amazon Prime streaming
If you have a data cap, then streaming video is probably not for you.
The point was you need different Internet service.
The problem is actually Amazon's DRM system.
Amazon Prime uses Adobe FlashAccess for it's DRM to prevent copying of rented and purchased content (forget that I could just hook up an LVDS emulator as my "LCD Display" and copy it all anyway).
ChromeCast and Apple TV don't support FlashAccess because they don't support Flash.
On the other hand, I have a friend who just bought a Samsung TV on clearance, and it's Amazon Prime video quit running because it started demanding that the Flash version be updated in the TV, which would be great, but it's an embedded system with no way to do that without updating the browser, and Samsung is somewhat notorious for not updating hardware once it's been sold.
Mostly because it would cost them their ability to write firmware for a new television set, were they to take their television team, and put them on updating an older product that they're not even manufacturing any more, and that won't get them into the consumer's wallets anyway, unless they started charing about half the cost of a new TV for the firmware updates.
Amazon needs to drop their proprietary system, or insist that Adobe (1) quit changing their DRM implementation, or (2) provide the updates as plugins that *can* be downloaded to any TV, based on the fact that they are running ARM processors. #2 is problematic, since a port of Chrome is the browser used on most of these (the source code costs Samsung nothing), and Chrome quit supporting non-sandboxed third party plugins not purchased through the Chrome App store and/or Google Play.
So Amazon is pretty screwed here.
So Amazon is jeopardising their own reputation as the one-stop online shop where you can buy any popular goods and items in existence -- just because they want to sell more of their own video streaming gadget? They must be terrified of their competitors.
I find it funny that a service that totes itself as a place to sell almost anything, would ban the sale of several devices which clearly violate nothing except that they 'compete' with a service that Amazon is offering as well.
Well done Amazon, well done.
You might as well ban all the other Apple and Google devices you sell as well.
Whoever made this decision is a COMPLETE idiot and just did the Amazon brand some serious harm.
I watch Amazon Instant Video, using Chrome, pushed across a ChromeCast to my TV.
When Chrome brought out the new ChromeCast, I bought one immediately just to get the 5GHz version, if nothing else (my 5GHz channels are dead, but the 2.4Ghz are jam-packed).
Fuck that up for me, Amazon, and I will just cancel the Prime subscription and not trust any software or online service from you again. I won't stop buying physical products, but you can forget all the add-on shit. No way I'm having my video library (which is 50% Amazon, 50% Google Play at the moment) tied into a format that I am denied playing how I like even though there is NO TECHNICAL BARRIER as far as I'm concerned. It works today, it should work tomorrow. If it doesn't, I'll reconsider how I use your service.
P.S. Why you'd buy a ChromeCast from Amazon anyway, I can't fathom. Bought from the Google website yesterday, have a delivery waiting for me at the post office today - not bad given that everyone was buying them. Same experience when I bought a Nexus for my daughter. Amazon is great, but you don't buy everything from Amazon just because it's convenient. It still has to be a good deal that you can't get elsewhere.
Amazon sells hundreds of other media playing devices that offer streaming video that directly competes with their hardware, and those devices play streams that directly compete with their service. I think customer confusion is indeed accurate, because I've been considering purchasing a streaming media player to show primarily Amazon Prime video & Netflix. Until reading this article, Chromecast and Appletv were near the top of my list, and I would've been really irritated if I had purchased and they didn't play Amazon video. I would then return the device, which costs Amazon money, and results in a poor customer experience. Nearly every other media device supports Amazon video, so it seems to me that Google and Apple are the ones who are choosing not to support a competitor.
I'm sure the DOJ will be filing suit against Apple for this very shortly.
Yeah. Last month they unrolled a huge amount of content.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
'Hey, how about we go back to my place for some Prime Video and Chill? You're not interested? No, it's not just a cheapass Google Play, they have dozens of movies more recent than 2010 and the complete Downton Abbey! Yes, I know Kyle has Netflix but that's no reason to... Oh. Well, see you around.'
as for A+ titles, they have much more than Netflix.
They'll soon have the replacement for Top Gear (rumoured to be called "Gear Knobs" heheh)
But actually that's all I have ever heard about Amazon's TV service. Maybe that's because I live in Australia and it's not available here, I don't know. But if it is, and I've just not heard anything about it, that's a massive failure on Amazon's part to market to people who could potentially be interested.
I'm barely aware it exists.
NDA? What NDA!!!
I have no idea how they treat Oz, but I would be shocked if their catalog were as good down there as it is here. Licensing agreements and whatnot.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
They don't want to support Chromecast and Apple TV because they are competitors to the Fire TV (except, they aren't really) and then they have the balls to outright lie about why, even when everybody knows damn well what they are doing.
I'm henceforth going to throw the Amazon apps off my Android phone and when my Prime sub comes up for renewal, I'll bury that sucker and let it rot.
Amazon's job in this world should be to provide a place to buy almost anything without regard to bullshit pissing matches like this. But it does seem like pissing is what they spend a lot of time doing AT Amazon. Someday somebody new will come along and take that company down a few notches just as Amazon took down so many others. Nothing lasts forever, especially when you act like a bully.
Anyway, this is all moot anyway. For MY needs, the Fire TV, chromecast and Apple TV all FAIL to deliver the content I want. Roku does have it, so guess which box I own? Hint: it's not the Fire. I've never like iTunes so none of my content is in it, and so, I have no use at all for an Apple TV. It's irrelevant to me. Chromecast, meh ok but still doesn't do what the Roku does. None of them do. It's that simple and there isn't even a war or battle or choice. There's one choice and wow it works fine so not like a choice of one is a problem.
Amazon I think wastes too damn much of their energy on doing what everyone else is doing mainly because they want to be me-too players. But it's a lot of ego and flops like the stupid Fire phone and only an occasional hit like the Kindle and Echo. Amazon does e-tailing better than anyone and warehouse logistics and robots like very few. If they stuck only to those things, they'd be doing just fine.
Sig for hire.
I have 70Mbps high speed cable it but has a 350Gb cap
90Mbps and 300Gb cap. Only had it for about 21 days last month, having just gotten it installed. Still almost hit 300 and that was with only two movies and one hour TV episode on Prime video. No Netflix. No torrenting.
The more bandwidth you have, the higher the quality of the stream. And wow it does look great but wow it gobbles up data like crazy.
Sig for hire.
I'm surprised Amazon was selling those in the first place. You can just buy them from the company's websites. If I was Amazon, I would sell them either.
Amazon can decide what they will and will not offer to the public. Why is this even news?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
I think you totally failed to comprehend the article to which you refer. The site and app has existed for ages without any issues from Apple. The issue was that they used their developer account to enter a lottery to get a pre-release developer AppleTV so they could begin coding apps (the app now removed even!) for that as yet-unreleased platform. In entering the lottery they agreed to not disclose any details about the software or hardware they would get. They violated that agreement and their account was closed, which means their app is not currently available. Not the same, at all.
Don't think that many people care about 4k content.
The rental prices are daft. Also rentals make things confusing if you have Prime. I don't want to pay per item.
They have a couple of exclusives that look interesting though, I quite enjoyed The Man In The High Castle. And getting Amazon prime delivery is a nice perk.
One could argue that this isn't anti-competitive behaviour but competitive behaviour. Which does not mean I like it, mind you.
Can you buy an Amazon Kindle in Apple stores? If not, is this "anti-competitive behaviour"? I would call it competitive behaviour.
This seems odd. Netflix runs on Amazon. They're Amazon Prime's biggest competition. AppleTV/ChromeCast are streaming devices.
Here is what I am thinking. Perhaps the new ChromeCast and AppleTV don't provide Amazon Prime streaming, or have not worked out an agreement for it. And Amazon is actually refusing to sell any streaming device that won't stream it's own Prime service.
I wager, this does NOT mean you won't be able to buy those items via Amazon's 3rd party sellers and fulfillment. Just that Amazon.com won't sell them directly.
No, nothing requires Amazon to sell a competitors device. That would be like requiring Verizon to sell AT&T phones and contracts.
Amazon Firestick is a lot nicer than my Chromecast in many ways. Sadly, my kids lost my remote.
Man, do you guys NOT understand anti-trust laws at all.
There is NOTHING that mandates a retailer must sell a competitors product. How in the world would that be an anti-trust law. If so, does Verizon have to sell AT&T phones and contracts? Are Ford dealers required to sell Chevy's?
Goodness gracious the stupidity on Slashdot is enormous today. They're not even trolls, they're more like ignorant orcs.
Jet looks cool, prices are a little higher, but they would still have all the products I want. I really only use Amazon for the 2-day shipping and you can definitely get that in other places.