You know, it's kind of worth noting that Amazon's not the only culprit for this kind of behavior. Unlike Android, you can't buy a book through the iOS Kindle app because Apple has banned apps that directly compete with its own services.
Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
421–430 of 545 posts
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#422Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#423Earlier quoted context omitted.
...I had Prime Video working on my Android phone a while back, but it no longer works. Is there a new, new way to get it to work that I don't know about?
Install the Amazon app, but not the Amazon app from Google Play, the sideloaded one directly from their site, and then do a bunch of convoluted stuff to install the Prime Video player within that app.
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Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#424Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I have Prime and prefer Netflix, because Prime Video still doesn't have a great selection. In my (limited) experience, the selection between Amazon Prime Video and Netflix is about the same. While this move very much feels like degrading performance of competing office suites on your OS or even refusing to run your windowing system on a competitor's OS ( cough Microsoft cough ), I can see why they would do it. For…
> For one thing, it's kind of the reverse: it's telling Apple and Google to get their shit together and not degrade performance of Prime Video on their devices Chromecast only doesn't support Amazon Video because Amazon hasn't made apps (iOS, Android, or Web) that support the Google Cast SDK, not because Google does something to degrade performance. AFAICT, essentially the same is true of AppleTV -- Amazon Video does…
> Chromecast only doesn't support Amazon Video because Amazon hasn't made apps (iOS, Android, or Web) that support the Google Cast SDK, not because Google does something to degrade performance.
> AFAICT, essentially the same is true of AppleTV -- Amazon Video doesn't work on the platform because Amazon hasn't bothered to make an app for the platform.
Interesting. Do we know definitively that this is the case? I mean, is it possible Amazon did submit apps and they were rejected? Or in the case of Apple they didn't want to give Apple their 30% cut?
And this may seem facetious, but are we begging the question of who should be supporting Amazon Video in the first place?
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#425Sounds like an anti-competitive move. Cue the google/apple lawsuits and FTC investigation in 3, 2, ......
So will they also force Apple and Google to sell FireTV on their stores? Amazon tries to look like the place where you can buy literally everything... but they aren't legally obligated to sell anything.
Apple and Google aren't dominant in ecommerce the way Amazon is.
The rules are different if a company is considered dominant in its market sector.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
> Do they really need to explain their actions here to anyone? Well, potentially to the FTC.
Why? Amazon isn't required to carry every product everyone on HN deems important. McDonald's isn't required to carry Pepsi products because someone likes Mountain Dew.
To your follow up: some kind of anti-competitive explanation for why Amazon shouldn't be allow to do this isn't really going to hold any water in this case.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#427FTC will ruin them, thankfully.
This would be a horrible commercial decision anyway.
It's about as stupid as Google shitifying all of their services to push the (ultimately unsuccessful) G+.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#428"by ending the sale of devices from Google Inc. and Apple Inc. that aren’t easily compatible with Amazon’s video service."
I predict they'll make it easier soon. Amazon is pulling an "easier to ask forgiveness than permission" approach to negotiations.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#429This move really saddens me. When I left Netscape to work at Amazon one of the things that I was excited about was a quote from Jeff. "Focus on the customer, not competition." It seems they hve forgotten that. I found it frustrating when I couldn't stream Prime videos to my android phone (is stock android that different from the version on Fire?) I found it frustrating (but understandable) when they said they wouldn'…
Prime instant video always worked on Android. Amazon just didn't want you to use it because they wanted to sell you a tablet. Or a horribly overpriced clunky phone. Amazon now lets you use Prime instant video on your Android device, but there's a big catch. You have to manually install it from their site and allow untrusted apps on your phone to do so. And it's not just Prime instant video you're installing, you're i…
And while you can get it running, it doesn't support Chromecast because they want you to buy their own competing product. I can feel the Justice Department's Antitrust Division rumbling from here.
Re: Amazon Will Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use them both as well. What I like about Amazon* Video is that it has new releases. If I don't catch a movie while it's still in the theater, I can watch it the day it comes out online. I still have a Netflix DVD subscription, so I could go that route too, but I always forget. Are there other good ways to watch new releases? Looks like the iTunes store also lets you rent movies. *Edit: I meant Amazon Video here whe…
Amazon _Prime_ almost never has new releases. Can you point to any recent release that's on Prime right now?
You're right (fixed). I meant to say Amazon Video, not Prime Video. I was thinking of the feature where you can pay to rent or purchase a video, not just the set of movies that are included in Prime without additional cost. I agree that the 'Prime' part does not have a lot of new releases.