"To avoid customer confusion". That's not even good bullshit.
Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
31–40 of 545 posts
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#32This is ridiculous. Google should delist Amazon.com to "avoid customer confusion" when searchers land there and can't buy a chromecast ;)
Their explanation is just insulting.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#33Well, if I needed a reason not to buy a Fire Stick, here it is.
If you can't sell your product without striking down competitor's products, than clearly your competitors have a better product.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#34This is a unfortunate turn of events. When I worked for Amazon we were a neutral vendor and would sell anything that is legal. There were a number of first amendment right fights as well. But clearly that era has come to a close.
It came to a close a long time ago. Amazon refuses to sell many legal products, eg caffeine powder and anything with the confederate flag.
Just in case anyone is interested in caffeine powder (interesting because it sublimates) do yourself a favor and don't order it.
The smallest orders available online are enough to kill an elephant, and you need a $500+ scale to dose it accurately enough to keep a human from overdosing. And while most human overdoses will be uniquely unpleasant but not lethal, there is definitely the potential for a lethal dose if someone puts a tablespoonful into a drink or something.
Pure caffeine is a uniquely bad thing to have around your living quarters. It's basically a poison (because of the difficulty in measuring dosage and small range between useful and dangerous effect), but people feel very comfortable with it, imagine it's safe to eat, and a big enough chunk of people will act macho towards it.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#35Amazon can absolutely do this (but I think it is a slippery slope, possibly a sign of some bad changes ahead at amazon. They really should be neutral about the products listed on their site) but the reason they gave is kinda ridiculous [1]. I have a hard time believing the enough people don't know the difference between Prime & Netflix to make this a legitimate reason to stop selling Chromecast and Apple TV [1]: Over…
"Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime," Amazon said in the e-mail. "It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion."
Then make your damn Video application work with the Nexus Player.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#36Amazon can absolutely do this (but I think it is a slippery slope, possibly a sign of some bad changes ahead at amazon. They really should be neutral about the products listed on their site) but the reason they gave is kinda ridiculous [1]. I have a hard time believing the enough people don't know the difference between Prime & Netflix to make this a legitimate reason to stop selling Chromecast and Apple TV [1]: Over…
"Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime," Amazon said in the e-mail. "It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion." Then make your damn Video application work with the Nexus Player.
Exactly.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#37This reminded me that I'm using Amazon too much lately. Time to give some juice to the competition, for my own future good.
A while back I noticed my last Amazon purchase was in late December 2014. I set a goal of not making a single Amazon purchase in calendar 2015. I'm on track and it hasn't been difficult at all.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#38Ironically, Netflix is running on AWS.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#39Ironically, Netflix is running on AWS.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#40Let the evilness begin!
Seriously though, isn't this just asking for an anti-trust investigation? Especially in the EU, where it is more focused on competition inhibiting actions.