Amazon will ban sale of Apple, Google video-streaming devices

As part of the program, customers get two-day shipping on a few items, and access to a large library of streaming video of content. The company has said repeatedly that many customers first discover Amazon Prime, thanks to the video service, but then end up becoming loyal shoppers.

Amazon of course already has its own set-top boxes and adapters under its Fire TV range.

It is notably not available on the Apple TV or on the Google Play store. Something like ‘Note: This product does not work with Prime video, so our dongle is better’ in big red letters with shiny Myspace glitter. Those video-streaming services will not be affected by the ban, Amazon told Bloomberg. Absolutely, but Amazon has every right to do it.

At the same time, Amazon has extended its reach into the living room.

You know, because people might be confused if they bought a media streamer from an online store and found out that while it can stream content from Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, and hundreds of other sources, it’s missing one.

While Amazon’s new plan is extremely aggressive, it’s also shrewd.

Google now hopes that Chromecast‘s relatively affordable price ($35 per unit) would make it more popular among regular US customers who see it as a device for geeks. Largely Amazon’s: the company could release apps for those platforms, but it hasn’t done so. It recently added the ability to download TV shows and movies to a device for offline viewing.

Google also offers thousands of iOS and Android apps that can enhance Chromecast and improve user experience. Competition. Amazon now promotes the Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, and to help lessen that device’s competition, they can simply disallow competitors to list their products.