This does kinda feel like Amazon jumping the shark, particularly in light of claimed "customer obsession" and and that "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards." (http://www.amazon.jobs/principles)
Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
101–110 of 545 posts
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 som…
You're not even remotely correct. A $20 one will work just fine. Caffeine is dosed in the 100+ mg range to 300 mg for the average person.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#103Isn'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?
Both are. Legally I believe Amazon is allowed to discriminate against competitors products as long as they're not a monopoly or using their dominant position in the "online-store market" to squash competition in the "online video-market". I'm not sure of the exact definition, but in the EU at least Google has gotten in hot-waters before over something similar.
Generally speaking, you are being anticompetitive if you're strong-arming the competition out of the market as opposed to challenging them based on the relative quality of your product. But at what point exactly it becomes illegal I wouldn't know.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#104This is gold: "It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion."
If a bull ate gold nuggets then crapped them out- yes, this is gold. It's the biggest steaming pile of gold I've ever read.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#105Wouldn'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.
Except they're also a marketplace and they require their vendors to ban the same products.
It's not an ecommerce strategy, they're very clearly using their huge leverage as the #1 ecommerce on the internet to attack their competitors and lure customers into their walled garden.
I'm pretty sure in my country this will be forbidden by antitrust laws.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#106Well, 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.
Does anyone here have a Kindle Fire Stick? It seems to already have dual band, has double the memory/ghz of a chromecast and most importantly - does not need a phone or computer to work. It comes with an independent remote control and built in apps to run. Plus, it already has Spotify. I'm wondering why you would get the Chromecast over the Fire Stick.
I have the Fire TV box, not the stick. The availability of apps on it is kind of annoying, and in the early days video playback was really buggy. But the interface is one of the nicest set-top boxes I've personally used. I prefer it to Apple TV and certainly Roku. I haven't tried Chromecast, though.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#107I 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...
Totally agree. They are destroying their most valuable component of their brand, for a relatively weak one (Prime Video). I have Prime and prefer Netflix, because Prime Video still doesn't have a great selection.
> They are destroying their most valuable component of their brand, for a relatively weak one (Prime Video).
This is why it almost seems like Amazon's Google+ moment: one underperforming product area somehow manages to convince leadership to change the company's underlying principles in its advantage to the long-term detriment of overall brand perception.
Edit: 32 points in 19 mins for this comment. I really hope someone from Amazon is reading.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#108Google and Apple don't sell Amazon devices on their stores, so I guess Amazon wants to take away that advantage from its competitors.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#109"Video-streaming devices" is very broad, and it shows how silly this decision is. Same argument can be applied to computers of any kind (tablets, laptops, desktops).
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 som…
I agree that caffeine powder isn't worth buying because it tends to come in large sizes and is hard to measure out. I'd recommend caffeine pills/tablets, though. Much easier than brewing some coffee or tea, and you can manage dosages more easily.