Amazon Prime A Top Priority For E-Commerce Firm, Ceases Selling Google & Apple-Streaming Devices
US e-commerce Amazon will stop allowing the sale of Google and Apple video-streaming devices on its website to focus on development of its own Amazon Prime Video streaming service, according to Billboard.
The company announced on Thursday that the video-streaming devices sold on the site should be able to work with Amazon Prime Video. The said feature is included in their $99 annual Prime loyalty membership program and works on Xbox, PlayStation and Roku; however it is not available on Apple TV and Chromecast.
Amazon stated that "it's important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion." Existing listings of Apple TV and Chromecast will be removed on by Oct. 29 as reported by BBC.
With the removal of Apple TV and Chromecast on its product listing, the company confirmed that their website will still sell video-streaming devices from third-party developers such as Roku, Xbox and PlayStation - on the sole reason that these devices are compatible with their very own Amazon Prime service.
However, despite the removal, Amazon Prime Video is still accessible via mobile application on Apple and Android smartphones and tablets as of this date. Google just released their all-new Chromecast Audio, while the newest version of Apple TV is slated for November release.
Amazon also did the same update with book publishers to improve the sales of their ebook reading device Kindle, which upset many authors and accused the company for being anti-competitive. According to Allen Grunes, a lawyer at Konkurrenz Group, "Amazon probably wants to teach Apple and Google a lesson about not making their devices more compatible. This is one way to do it and it's not likely anticompetitive.".
The company is focused on expanding Amazon Prime as numerous movies and series titles are added in their listing for this month. Titles include the critically acclaimed drama "Mr. Robot," "The Blacklist," and "The Hunger Games" according to a list from Vulture.
At present, Google and Apple is not responding to media requests for comment.
