Amazon is muscling its way into dominating the streaming video market by removing Apple TV and Google Chromecast products this month. The media devices, which Amazon says do not “interact well” with the Instant Video platform, will be completely removed — new listings and old — by October 29th.
Other devices that run Amazon Instant Video apps such as the Roku media player and Xbox and PlayStation consoles will not be affected (if you could even imagine Amazon removing gaming consoles as well).
The decision to remove the second and fourth top selling streaming media players (Parks Associates, August, 2015) from the Amazon store will potentially put the company in a position to sell more Fire TV players and the media that plays on them, as well as grow their $99 per year Prime subscriber base.
Bloomberg, who published the news yesterday, suggests the Amazon strategy will “hurt Google more than Apple,” mainly because Apple already has sold plenty of Apple TV devices and has a built-in customer base that purchase within Apple ecosystem.
But the move could also hurt Amazon as well. Apple TV devices make up a large percentage of the streaming media players sold in the US, and by removing them from the Amazon store they are essentially not giving their customers access to the best brands. What’s next: iPhones, iPads?
Source: Bloomberg
