Amazon banning the sale of Apple TV and Chromecast

[Swiket]

[url]http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-01/amazon-will-ban-sale-of-apple-google-video-streaming-devices[/url]
[quote]Amazon.com Inc. is flexing its e-commerce muscles to gain an edge on competitors in the video-streaming market by ending the sale of devices from Google Inc. and Apple Inc. that aren’t easily compatible with Amazon’s video service.

The Seattle-based Web retailer sent an e-mail to its marketplace sellers that it will stop selling Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast. No new listings for the products will be allowed and posting of existing inventory will be removed Oct. 29, Amazon said. Amazon’s streaming service, called Prime Video, doesn’t run easily on its rival’s hardware.
"Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime," Amazon said. "It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion."

Roku Inc.’s hardware, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox, and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, which work with Amazon’s video service, aren’t affected, Amazon said.[/quote]

[GordonZombie]

Doesn't that fall under anti-competitive laws?

[agentfazexx]

Um...That's kinda stupid.

[Doozle]

[QUOTE=GordonZombie;48802325]Doesn't that fall under anti-competitive laws?[/QUOTE]

I initially thought this. But then I thought my local corner shop if they wanted to can decide to stop stocking a certain brand of beer or cigs or porn mags if they want to. It's their shop, they can choose what they sell

I'm not so sure about people's own stores within Amazon

[Map in a box]

[QUOTE=GordonZombie;48802325]Doesn't that fall under anti-competitive laws?[/QUOTE]

Yes since they sell a competitive product.
The EU slammed Google on completely stupid claims about them promoting their products in searches while Amazon outright removes competition. All we can hope is that the EU stops their hateboner over Google and starts attacking companies that actually inhibit competition

[Giraffen93]

since they stopped their super saver shipping to here i completely stopped using all their stuff :v:

[thrawn2787]

[QUOTE=Doozle;48802384]I initially thought this. But then I thought my local corner shop if they wanted to can decide to stop stocking a certain brand of beer or cigs or porn mags if they want to. It's their shop, they can choose what they sell

I'm not so sure about people's own stores within Amazon[/QUOTE]

Right but the corner store doesn't make a chromecast alternative

[Zeke129]

[QUOTE=Doozle;48802384]I initially thought this. But then I thought my local corner shop if they wanted to can decide to stop stocking a certain brand of beer or cigs or porn mags if they want to. It's their shop, they can choose what they sell

I'm not so sure about people's own stores within Amazon[/QUOTE]

Amazon holds 23% of the retail sales market. A corner store can do basically anything they want because they aren't big enough to affect the competitiveness of the market. Amazon absolutely is.

[Protocol7]

Well I guess I won't be buying a Chromecast from Amazon, then. Simple as that. Y'all don't want a cut of my sale, that's all on you.

[Missing User]

[QUOTE=Protocol7;48803680]Well I guess I won't be buying a Chromecast from Amazon, then. Simple as that. Y'all don't want a cut of my sale, that's all on you.[/QUOTE]

could, you know, just buy a Chromecast from Google.

[url]https://www.google.com/chromecast/buy-tv/[/url]

[wickedplayer494]

Dirty, but not a big deal since I could buy straight from Apple or Google.

[agentfazexx]

[QUOTE=wickedplayer494;48803823]Dirty, but not a big deal since I could buy straight from Apple or Google.[/QUOTE]

At a higher price.

[Sableye]

[quote]"It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion."
[/quote]

then port your shit to chromecast already, amazon's prime streaming app is garbage. i don't see them having a problem getting it to work on the fucking x-box, i'd assume chromecast is probably much much easier to get things working than the xbox which runs on some fucked up version of windows

[agentfazexx]

[QUOTE=Sableye;48804000]then port your shit to chromecast already, amazon's prime streaming app is garbage[/QUOTE]

So is their app store on Android.

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=agentfazexx;48804009]So is their app store on Android.[/QUOTE]

if crunchyroll can have a chromecast compatable app, theres no reason why amazon can't do it either

[S31-Syntax]

Its also not Amazon's fault that those two competing products don't fully support their video streaming service like everyone else.

I wouldn't want to sell a device that doesn't work with my services either, much like you wohldnt like to buy one that doesn't work with amazon prime video... Off of amazon.

[karlosfandango]

What about CC2, is that compatible?

[Elspin]

To be fair it's not like they just stopped selling a product that competed with their own, just products that don't support their services. This is an important part of the article really:

[QUOTE]Roku Inc.’s hardware, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox, and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, which work with Amazon’s video service, aren’t affected, Amazon said.[/QUOTE]

I can sort of understand where they're coming from although it would be better imo to just put a warning on the store page or something.

[Fat White Lump]

[QUOTE=Sableye;48804016]if crunchyroll can have a chromecast compatable app, theres no reason why amazon can't do it either[/QUOTE]

Can you buy content through crunchyroll? Like individual episodes? I bet that has something to do with it, because you can through Amazon Prime.

[Qwerty Bastard]

So they aren't selling Chromecasts because they can't play Amazon prime videos?

ISN'T THAT SORT OF AMAZON'S JOB TO MAKE THEIR APP CHROMECAST COMPATABLE

[editline]1st October 2015[/editline]

[QUOTE=Fat White Lump;48804112]Can you buy content through crunchyroll? Like individual episodes? I bet that has something to do with it, because you can through Amazon Prime.[/QUOTE]

Google Play lets you buy individual episodes and movies and lets you chromecast them.

[krutomisi]

[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;48804019]Its also not Amazon's fault that those two competing products don't fully support their video streaming service like everyone else.

I wouldn't want to sell a device that doesn't work with my services either, much like you wohldnt like to buy one that doesn't work with amazon prime video... Off of amazon.[/QUOTE]

the way the chromecast works is the provider of the service (aka amazon) makes their app steam to it

it is literally and directly amazon's fault

[Protocol7]

[QUOTE=Code3Response;48803821]could, you know, just buy a Chromecast from Google.

[url]https://www.google.com/chromecast/buy-tv/[/url][/QUOTE]

A big draw of Amazon is the free 2-day shipping with Prime, y'know.

[karlosfandango]

[QUOTE=krutomisi;48804186]the way the chromecast works is the provider of the service (aka amazon) makes their app steam to it

it is literally and directly amazon's fault[/QUOTE]

This explains the problem:
[url]http://www.techhive.com/article/2982096/streaming-services/the-sad-story-of-amazon-video-on-chromecast-and-android-tv.html[/url]

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=Fat White Lump;48804112]Can you buy content through crunchyroll? Like individual episodes? I bet that has something to do with it, because you can through Amazon Prime.[/QUOTE]

The Chromecast is basically a smartphone with only an HDMI output, Google doesn't control the platform any more than they do Android, all they do is maintain the APIs, its amazons job to build their service for that platform

[Dr.Critic]

My Chromecast was the best investment I've done outside of getting a Netflix subscription

I can come home bored out of my mind, load up the play store, find almost anything I want to watch, up to and including films released the same year, and have it on my TV screen inside of 3 minutes. Genius.

[Sand Castle]

If Amazon actually thinks this will actually sell more Fire TV units they're pretty out of it

[Wayword]

companies arent obligated to sell things if they dont want to

[Map in a box]

[QUOTE=Wayword;48806225]companies arent obligated to sell things if they dont want to[/QUOTE]

then said companies that hold a quarter of the worlds marketshare should be split up

[Fat White Lump]

[QUOTE=Qwerty Bastard;48804127]
[editline]1st October 2015[/editline]

Google Play lets you buy individual episodes and movies and lets you chromecast them.[/QUOTE]

Yeah but that's Google's service, of course they don't mind you using their product to stream that stuff.

[QUOTE=Sableye;48804452]The Chromecast is basically a smartphone with only an HDMI output, Google doesn't control the platform any more than they do Android, all they do is maintain the APIs, its amazons job to build their service for that platform[/QUOTE]

Yeah but it's not allowed on Google Play, why would they allow Chromecast support?

[Sableye]

[QUOTE=Fat White Lump;48806629]Yeah but that's Google's service, of course they don't mind you using their product to stream that stuff.

Yeah but it's not allowed on Google Play, why would they allow Chromecast support?[/QUOTE]

Outside of a fight over amazons fork of Android with Amazon fire tablets which were a massive flop (they have like a 6 pack for 100$ now) they still cling to the idea that they have to have all their services behind their own appstore, really all you need is three apps from amazon, their shopping app and their video app, their reader app, and you sign in through your prime account on the video app like you already do with hulu and Netflix. What they won't do is release these apps unbundled from their appstore even though their market share in that space is slightly larger than Microsoft's

Now both Google and amazon have had fights, but amazon is just inconveniencing their customers to sell their own hardware that's feature locked to the one streaming service