Amazon appears to be taking a page out of Apple’s playbook by removing competitors’ products from its virtual shelves. The e-commerce giant said today that would prohibit the sale of video-streaming devices from rivals Google and Apple that aren’t compatible with its own Prime video service.
In an email to marketplace sellers, Amazon said it would stop selling Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast, Bloomberg reports.
The online retailer said that sellers would be prohibited from posting new listings for the products starting immediately, while current postings will be taken down Oct. 29.
According to Amazon, the decision to remove the products came about because of difficulties streaming Amazon’s Prime service on Chromecast and Apple TV.
“Over the last three years, Prime Video has become an important part of Prime,” Amazon said. “It’s important that the streaming media players we sell interact well with Prime Video in order to avoid customer confusion.”
Amazon will continue to sell devices that work with Prime, like the Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation consoles.
While it might make sense to stop selling products that don’t work with your preferred system, not all Amazon customers are Prime members and have access to the streaming service.
“Fewer than 20% of Amazon customers are Prime members,” Michael Pachter, a financial analyst, tells Bloomberg. “What about the 80% who want an Apple TV to stream Netflix? I think that the excuse of avoiding customer confusion is a not-so-veiled attempt to favor Amazon first-party products over third-party products, and think it was a bad move.”
Amazon to Ban Sale of Apple, Google Video-Streaming Devices [Bloomberg]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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