Providing market intelligence for more than 35 years

In The News

Why Amazon Will Stop Selling Apple TV and Google Chromecast

According to BloombergBusiness, which broke the story, neither Amazon nor its affiliated resellers will issue new product listings for the three devices as of that date. All unsold inventory will be pulled from the site as well. You will, however, be able to buy other streaming players, notably Roku models, the Xbox and PlayStation game systems, and—of course—the new Amazon Fire TV.

An Amazon spokesperson sent us the same statement issued to news outlets: "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."

The issue, it would seem, isn't that the banned Apple TV and Chromecast don't "interact" well with Amazon Prime; it's that unlike Roku, XBox, PlayStation, and Fire TV, they don't currently support Amazon Prime at all.

The Amazon move comes after Apple and Google updated their streaming media players: The new Apple TV is slated to arrive at the end of this month, and the revamped Chromecast is available now.

According to a recent Parks Associates report on streaming media devices, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Roku accounted for 86 percent of streaming media player sales to the nation's broadband households in 2014. That means that at the end of this month, Amazon will no longer sell two of the four top-selling players in the U.S. 

From the article "Why Amazon Will Stop Selling Apple TV and Google Chromecast" by Finance.Yahoo.com

Previously In The News

‘Voice first world’ nears: Smart devices + artificial intelligence = end of touch

And 55 percent of families with broadband say voice control is “appealing,” thus “driving adoption and usage of voice control devices and apps.” In fact as we head into the 2018 holiday season, 43 per...

‘Game of Thrones’ series finale is approaching. How will HBO survive after it?

Brett Sappington, senior director at the research firm Parks Associates in Addison, Texas, said another positive sign is how HBO Now subscriptions continued to grow in 2017 — after “Game of Thrones” f...

TV antennas are making a comeback in the age of digital streaming

Billy Nayden, an analyst for the research firm Parks Associates, said the TV antenna resurgence is a byproduct of consumers feeling overwhelmed by the many viewing platforms available. Some are even s...

In a crowded market, smaller streaming services must stand out — or perish

Tubi is part of a wave of streaming services that has flooded the U.S. market; some of them cater to the general masses and others are specifically focused on genres like horror or anime. Over the las...