Spencer Soper over at Bloomberg is reporting [bloomberg.com] on Amazon's announcement that they plan to cease selling video streaming devices that it claims "aren’t easily compatible with its video service."
From the article:
The Seattle-based Web retailer sent an e-mail to its marketplace sellers that it will stop selling the Apple TV and Google’s Chromecast since those devices don’t "interact well" with Prime Video. No new listings for the products will be allowed and posting of existing inventory will be removed Oct. 29, Amazon said. Prime Video doesn’t run easily on its rival’s hardware.
Roku Inc.’s set-top device, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Corp.’s PlayStation, which work with Amazon’s video service, aren’t affected, it said. Amazon’s Fire TV stick, which plugs into an HDMI port to connect televisions with streaming services such as Netflix and Prime Video, is the company’s best-selling electronic device.
Should this be considered an anti-competitive move by Amazon, or are they really trying to improve the "user experience" by favoring products that play better with their services? What streaming devices do Soylentils use, and does use of Amazon Prime Video impact your choice of streaming devices?
This story is also being covered by The New York Times [nytimes.com], USA Today [usatoday.com], CNET [cnet.com] and many others [google.com].