Well Folks, see how a propos yesterday's meeting topic was?
see how Chromecast? Apple TV? Amazon Isn't Having Them.
From NY Times for Friday, 2015_10_02
By DAVID STREITFELD and KATIE BENNER; David Streitfeld reported from
Seattle, and Katie Benner from San Francisco. Conor Dougherty contributed
reporting from New York.. SEATTLE -- Amazon said on Thursday that it would
stop selling devices from Apple and Google that compete with its own
streaming media players, escalating the entertainment battle between the
major tech companies.
Apple TV and Google's Chromecast are popular items in Amazon's electronics
store. But the devices are in a brawl for market share with Amazon's Fire TV
and Fire TV Stick, which were introduced in 2014. The Fire Stick delivers
Amazon's rapidly expanding video offerings to its customers. Apple TV and
Chromecast do not..
Amazon's move to ban competitors is not a retailing gambit. In fact, the
company is willing to risk annoying customers who cannot get what they want
because it is pursuing a much bigger prize. The stick is crucial to Amazon's
ambitions to move from being just a retailer to a multifaceted provider of
everything virtual and physical.
'It's unlike Amazon to be this territorial,' said James McQuivey, an analyst
with the research firm Forrester. But he said it was a logical and perhaps
inevitable move.
Amazon Prime, which began as a frequent shipping service, now has tens of
millions of subscribers. In the effort to build out its ecosystem, Prime's
video and music components are becoming as important as quick package
delivery.
Updates about Prime Music and Prime Video are frequent. Just as the news was
breaking about Apple TV and Chromecast, Amazon announced on Thursday another
Prime Video licensing deal, saying it would be the exclusive streaming
subscription home for three new CBS series.
Mr. McQuivey said Amazon's move echoed Apple TV's refusal to play Netflix's
streaming service several years ago because Apple did not want to promote a
competitor. Apple ultimately gave in.
Apple, Google and Amazon once made very different products. Apple made
hardware like computers and smartphones, Google ran a web search behemoth,
and Amazon was an online retailer. But the three companies' business models
are converging with a vengeance, with each offering a combination of
hardware, like the competing video streaming devices, as well as software
and entertainment like music and video.
'We're seeing a turf war play out between Apple, Amazon and Google,' said
Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies.
The companies have clashed in the past. In 2012, Apple pushed Google's
YouTube app off its lineup of built-in apps on iPhones and iPads, for
example. That same year, Apple also featured its own maps app on the gadgets
instead of using Google Maps.
As a store, Amazon likes to stress that it is a place 'where people can find
and discover virtually anything they want to buy online. It does not want
customers to go elsewhere. Last year, when the retailer clashed with the
publisher Hachette and warned customers it was going to make it harder for
them to buy Hachette books, it stressed that they were still available from
third-party sellers on its site.
This time is different. Amazon is forbidding its vast army of third-party
merchants from selling the Apple and Google devices after Oct. 29, according
to messages from resellers posted in online forums and that Amazon did not
dispute. Amazon's ban of sales of the Apple and Google devices from
third-party merchants was earlier reported by Bloomberg.
Amazon, which is never keen on explaining its actions, issued a cryptic
statement that did not mention its two competitors.
'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.
Roku, Xbox, PlayStation and Fire TV are excellent choices.
The Xbox is made by Microsoft and the PlayStation by Sony. Roku is more
popular than Apple's device and is about even with Google's device.
Apple and Google declined to comment. On Amazon's list of top-selling
electronics products, Chromecast comes in at No. 6 and Apple TV is No. 14.
Amazon issued the ban just after Apple and Google unveiled new streaming
media players. Apple showed an upgraded Apple TV last month, but analysts
were generally unimpressed. Its ambition is to get into more living rooms
with a multipurpose entertainment hub that lets app makers create content
for the big screen. When the new Apple TV is released at the end of this
month, users should be able to watch TV and play video games, as well as use
apps to shop, book lodging and collaborate on art and design projects.
Google this week introduced a redesigned Chromecast along with a second
device, Chromecast Audio, for streaming music to speakers. Chromecast has
been a huge success in Google's otherwise spotty record on hardware. Since
unveiling the device in 2013, the company has sold some 20 million units.
Some analysts said there was one immediate loser here: customers.
'It really just hurts the consumers and creates confusion at a time when all
of these companies are trying to build up these products,' said Paul Verna,
media analyst at eMarketer.
But he said sales would not be affected. 'I don't think that in today's
world consumers are going to not buy one of these products just because
Amazon isn't selling it,' Mr. Verna said. 'If Amazon is trying to hurt Apple
and Google's business, this isn't going to do it.
Amazon likes to focus on the long term, however. And in the long term, it is
banking on content being king.
'People get these devices to watch Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and YouTube.
If you don't have all four of those things, you have an inferior device,'
said Mr. McQuivey, the Forrester analyst. 'And given how expensive the
devices can be, particularly Apple TV, it's a lot to ask a customer to pay
that kind of money to only get three-fourths of the content you really want.
================================================================
The NHAB-tech mailing list
Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/nhab-tech
Administrative contact: nhab-tech-moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Unsubscribe: Send a message to nhab-tech-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
================================================================
