Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

bloomberg.com

61–70 of 545 posts

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#61
post #23
post #4

This 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.

Hmm, guess it is also time for a new neutral vendor to rise up? Anyone interested in funding an startup that will provide warehousing and an online marketplace for physical goods in a neutral manor to ultimately benefit consumers and shareholders? We also promise to try to make the search better than amazons. email is in my profile.

A huge part of Amazon's success is that they don't do all of the warehousing. It's quite easy to become a seller on Amazon and ship stuff from your home. That's how they can have such a massive selection of items for sale. Obviously they also have huge warehouses. Good luck competing with them though :)

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#62
post #7
post #2

Isn't this anti-competitive?

I thought anti-competitive would be Amazon selling its fire tv stick at a loss for a period of time long enough to force competitors to drop out of the market. Surely what they want to sell in their store should only be up to them?

That would be one form of anti-competitive behavior.

Using one's market dominance in one field in order to defeat competitors in another field is also sometimes considered anti-competitive, though of course subject to a lot of considerations (e.g., how big your dominance is and what the behavior is specifically).

This is precisely how MS got nailed in the 90s - they were using their dominance of OSes to spread IE and prevent the spread of competing browsers (well, Netscape at the time).

Amazon isn't quite a monopoly like MS was in the 90s, but they're large enough that maybe it matters.

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#63

I don't think this move is in Amazon's best interests long term. Their competitive edge with Prime is that I go to them first because I assume they'll have what I want, at a fair price and the highest level of convenience. If they are no longer the "Everything Store" then they won't be where I go to for everything...

Within 3 minutes of reading this, I canceled my Amazon Prime account. The fact they require sideloading APKs for streaming video on Android devices, and even then only support SD quality was annoying.

This just tells me they have no intention whatsoever of improving the situation. I guess I'll use Google Express now.

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#64
If this is the beginning of a trend then I won't be a Prime customer much longer. If they don't sell the products I want, then I don't care if I have free super fast shipping and the value goes out the window. I could care less about their video services. I have Netflix and Hulu, it's been months since I watched something on Prime video.

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#65
post #27

>"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." Google and Apple now both have open SDK's for creating streaming apps for their devices. Isn't the the fact these devices don't "interact well with Prime Video" entirely Amazon's fault?

If I was Apple I would try really hard to avoid Amazon's service working.. they are a more direct competitor than say netflix, as they sell both the hardware and the service

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#66
post #32

This 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.

> Their explanation is just insulting.

Do they really need to explain their actions here to anyone? They don't owe Apple and Google a spot in their inventory.

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#67
post #24

Wouldn't it be great if Google de-indexed links to pages regarding Amazon Prime citing the same reason "in order to avoid customer confusion."?

That would instantly backfire on google. Amazon isn't a search engine that indexes the web. It's a ecommerce site, and ultimately is allowed to carry the products they want to carry. This is only specific to Apple & Google video streaming devices, not all Apple & Google products.

What if Google removed all of Amazon's apps that stream competing content on Google Play store? Then what?

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#68
post #27

>"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." Google and Apple now both have open SDK's for creating streaming apps for their devices. Isn't the the fact these devices don't "interact well with Prime Video" entirely Amazon's fault?

I guess the question is whether those SDKs provide everything Amazon needs. And, are there no legal restrictions that affect Amazon either.

Overall the article just says Prime "doesn't work well" on those devices, but does work well on others. It doesn't say why. At this point it's hard to say who's to blame. It would have been nice if the article had investigated the issue.

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#69
post #28

There should be laws that force anyone who owns a platform without any perfect replacements (which includes all two-sided markets) to allow any legal and non-fraudulent content, products, businesses or people on it at non-discriminatory costs. Amazon should be forced allow selling anything legal, Apple should be forced to allow any legal apps, Facebook should not be allowed to ban people, Paypal should not be allowed…

What happens to the freedom of these companies to refuse your business?

Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices

#70
Remember, this is Amazon. A PR machine whose primary product is their stock. The Amazon web store is almost an afterthought.

I will bet that in a year these devices will be on sale there. (Amazon's going to give up selling the iPhone? Yeah right!)

This is just PR generated clickbait.

Post reply on HN