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MrMC
Posting Freak
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HAHAA, their loss and if google/apple wanted, I bet some 'restraint of trade' action would change their tune. It would be fun to see some titans with very deep pockets fight it out.
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2015-10-02, 18:34
(This post was last modified: 2015-10-02, 18:35 by jonandtice.)
I think the title of the article I posted is misleading because if the goal is to promote Amazon Prime Video, Amazon would sell all the devices, and make Prime Video apps for those devices (which they don't and as a Prime subscriber and Nexus Player owner I am very angry about).
Instead, I think the goal is to promote their Fire TV devices given the fact that 1) Fire TV devices have Netflix on them, and 2) They don't make Amazon Prime apps for any devices other than the Fire TVs.
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Amazon is well within their rights to do so, but the negative publicity and reaction may not be worth it. I'm sure they have precise data on how many people look at Chromecast vs Fire on their site and what they end up buying.
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Amazon's move is absurd... what about all the other media players they sell that also don't support Amazon Prime? Are those all going to be banned as well?
[H]i-[d]eft [M]edia [K]een [V]ideosaurus
My HT
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The issue isn't that Amazon is choosing not to sell something. That is well within their rights. The problem is that they have banned 3rd party/market sellers from listing those products as well. It might still be legal, but it violates a trust people had in Amazon. Amazon is both shopkeeper and market place in this example, and their success is largely built on that trust.
First it's TV boxes, but what about tablets and phones?
The excuse that it's about Prime video support is laughable, especially in the Chromecast examples. Amazon is the one who refuses to make Prime available or not on those devices. They already work with Chromecast and AirPlay, and they have iOS and Android ports for the actual player.
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2015-10-02, 23:50
(This post was last modified: 2015-10-02, 23:53 by trogggy.)
I don't get the trust problem. Amazon is somewhere to go to buy stuff. They don't sell everything. The 'trust' for me is that if there's a problem they'll sort it out - not that I can buy a particular product.
I don't get why anyone would care.
Apps in (or not in) the store for dubious reasons - I can understand the annoyance there.
Edit: that's not saying I think it sounds like a good idea. If I wanted a chromecast I'd find one elsewhere, possibly find other stuff at the same time, possibly use that supplier in the future and Amazon would lose business. But not because I 'lost trust.'
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nickr
Retired Team-Kodi Member
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If Amazon truly dominated the online marketplace then competition law would definitely prevent this. But there are plenty of places to buy online.
But yeah, I would have thought the bad publicity would have driven this idea out the backdoor of the Amazon ideas dept.
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2015-10-03, 04:11
(This post was last modified: 2015-10-03, 04:16 by Ned Scott.)
Pretend it's a movie. Amazon also has movies. Amazon also owns the movie theater. Amazon decides not to show a very popular movie only because it "competes" with one of their movies. While you can go to another "theater", this kind of behavior from a mega company is cause for concern. Google and Apple can afford to sell direct, but for a lot of people it's hard to beat the store model that Amazon or eBay put out. It also means that people who are casually looking to buy things will only see what Amazon wants you to see (part of the trust issue).
Again, if it was just their store the I could understand. But this is a whole "market place", and one that Amazon said we could trust them to be fair about.
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Imagine if Google decided to block amazon.com from their search results, which of course is completely legal and within their rights, how would Amazon feel about that? And btw this is not without precedent, Google did this to Microsoft (Windows Phone), refused to support it and refused to build apps for the platform or let anyone else do so.
This is simply desperation on Amazon's part, no one is actually buying Fire tablets/phones and Amazon continurs to lose money on the platform and will continue to do so.
One of the things you learn when you get older... Nothing is free.
