Amazon Confirms It Will Stop Selling Apple TV, Chromecast
Amazon will stop selling Apple’s Apple TV streaming box and Google’s Chromecast streaming adapter at the end of the month. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the decision Thursday, sending Variety the following statement:
“Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime. It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion. Roku, XBOX, PlayStation and Fire TV are excellent choices.”
Amazon didn’t provide any further details, but it looks like the ban is global, affecting all markets in which these streaming players have been sold in the past. Google wasn’t available for comment; Apple has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Amazon had sent an email to some of its resellers earlier Thursday, informing them that they’d be prevented from listing Apple TV, Chromecast and Android TV products on the store because each of those platforms was missing support for Amazon’s Prime Video platform. The story was then picked up by by Bloomberg.
Amazon.com currently lists the 2013 version of Chromecast, but not the updated device, which Google unveiled earlier this week. The email sent to resellers stated that all listings of Chromecast, Apple TV and Android TV-based devices would be removed by October 29.
Amazon’s reasoning for the removal of these products is a bit perplexing. Google’s Chromecast has an open SDK, allowing anyone to add cast capabilities to their apps. Apple just released an SDK for the new Apple TV, which would theoretically allow Amazon to build an app for the device as well.
What’s more, Amazon actually has built an app for Android TV-based Sony TVs, but hasn’t made it available for the Nexus Player or other Android TV-based devices yet.
Chromecast in particular has been extremely popular on Amazon. The streaming stick was the best-selling electronics device on the site for a long time, and outsold Amazon’s own Fire TV and Fire TV stick until not too long ago.
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