Providing Market Intelligence for 40 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

Need help with your TV and smart-home setup? At-home tech support may be the answer.

Patrice Samuels, senior analyst at Parks Associates, a market research company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services, said demand for traditional technology support, like...

How Netflix is adapting as the streaming boom stalls

“There’s only so many consumers out there that are willing to pay full price,” said a research analyst with Parks Associates From the article, "How Netflix is adapting as the streaming boom stalls....

Amazon’s new smart speaker is a TV streaming box, and vice versa

The Fire TV Cube will be an interesting test for full-blown streaming boxes, which have fallen out of favor as most consumers opt for cheaper streaming dongles that can fit behind a television. Last y...

Apple earnings could offer clues on streaming performance

Consumers get a year of the streaming service for free with purchase of a new Apple device. Converting those users into paying customers might be tricky, said Steve Nason with Parks Associates....