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Upcoming Amazon Prime Video App for Apple TV May Not Be Ready for September Launch
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If they were worried about that they wouldn't have an iOS app. Plus, neither the iOS app or tvOS app will allow purchases from within the app so there's no need to give up 30%. It will be view only, exactly like the Vudu app.
To be factual that number reflects the number of all sold Apple Devices, not users. The maximum number of users is less then a third of that. Still to your point a good number. I am sure Amazon is well aware of the numbers and how moving its apps to Apple will impact their business at any given point in time. When it makes business sense to do so they will, if not then they won't.
10 bucks says the app was ready and a prototype already existed, but Apple didn't like Amazon's terms or vice versa and then the hardball came.
Do you really think with the ridiculous availability of Prime Video on almost anything that has a display they didn't at least have a prototype to continue sailing as soon as they ink deals?
Glassed Silver:win
That's a much different deal. We're talking about a retailer refusing to sell a product because they make their own competing version now. That's not the same as a consumer electronics company not making one of their proprietary features available to the competition. These are completely different things. It'd be like a grocery store refusing to sell Cheerios cause they sell their own Oat-Os, vs Porsche not giving their engines to Kia to put in their cars.
I am the apposite. I got Apple TV for other reasons, but canceled Amazon Prime and won't get it until they release an Apple TV app.
Agreed. Frankly the echo ecosystem is fantastic (I never thought I would like it, we now own five dots and use them all the time!). I am looking forward when Amazon comes out with a superior fire TV and perhaps just getting rid of the Apple TV all together!
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Then it ties up another device. Also, it's just another unnesssissary step...
Exactly.
Amazon has a streaming video service that people pay for.
Why wouldn't they put it on every device available? I mean... they already let you watch their content on your iPhone and iPad... why did they forget Apple's streaming TV box until now?
I'm pretty sure the AppleTV is one of the only streaming boxes that doesn't have Amazon Prime Video.
Good analogies, except it's not that sharply defined. There is some crossover for both companies.
Amazon is also a consumer electronics company, and Apple also has a retail store.
Apple also stops selling competing products in its stores. Nest, Fitbit, Bose come to mind. Possibly Sonos soon too.
This! Probably.
I have a FireTV which I mainly use for Netflix and MrMC - but the Amazon Video/Music side of it is very much an Amazon cash register - with movies and shows to rent and buy advertised alongside prime material. Given that it is quite feasible to have both a FireTV and an AppleTV (I have an ATV3 sitting next to the FireTV for AirPlay etc.) then Amazon are obviously going to be lukewarm about an ATV app if it can't generate the same sales income.
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The only "consumer electronics" products Amazon makes - Kindle, Fire TV, Echo - are "shop windows" that are very tightly tied to - and subsidised by - their retail business. (OK, there's the Amazon Basics stuff but that's really just cutting out the middleman on rebadged, third-party products).
So, I think its fair to say that Apple is a hardware company that diversified into online media sales, whereas Amazon is an online store that only produces hardware that can drive online sales.
You won't see Amazon putting much effort into developing better wordprocessing or maps apps for their devices.
The same is true of some of Apple's products - ISTR that the iTunes store and iPod pre-date Amazon's sales of MP3s - but I also recall that the iPod pre-dated the iTunes store and the iPhone pre-dated the App store.
I'd say that its only the ATV and the forthcoming HomePod that directly compete with Amazon's business model - and even with the HomePod you can see Apple emphasising its HiFi credentials rather than its ability to order toilet rolls.
There is no transaction that happens between Apple and Amazon if Amazon doesn't sell services through the app, if Prime Subscription is not paid through the app, then Apple is not involved. Amazon understands this and yet won't release a streaming only app with no option to buy services through the app. From where I stand, the ball has been in the Amazon's court for a long time.
Prime is not the main problem. The problem is that there's no way to buy extra Amazon media through Apple TV without paying Apple a fee.
For example, if my daughter wants to buy a non-included TV show episode, or my wife wants to buy a non-Prime movie to show the kids.
- With Roku, there's no fee so you can do it all within the Amazon video app.
- With the iPad, you can at least open a browser to Amazon's retail site and buy the media that way, then come back and view it in the video app. Awkward, but workable for savvy people (not for my wife!!).
- With Apple TV, there is not even the browser option. The ONLY way to do it all on ATV is to pay Apple a fee that normally was very likely more than Amazon makes on the media itself.
It's Apple's greed that has stopped the app all this time. Apple can sell its own iTunes media without paying a fee to a third party just for the ability, yet no one else can.
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I genuinely no longer care about Apple TV's Amazon app.
But not because I'm indifferent. Far from it. I enjoy Amazon Prime on my TV now because I own an Insignia 55" television which has Roku built in. Everything *except* Apple TV can be found on it: Sling TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Showtime Anytime, Crackle, CBS All Access, etc.
My Apple TV box was my go-to streaming device for several years, but the purchase of a new TV made it a no-brainer. And THAT is what Apple's issue seems to be now... not holding out for the right conditions by which it might agree (with Amazon in this case) on a streaming app, but whether the Apple TV can indeed hold out *as* a primary device. The television industry didn't wait for Apple or Amazon for their boxes. Instead, the manufacturers started preloading their devices with technology to make streaming boxes irrelevant.
I now have a TV for which I only ever use the Apple TV to play my iTunes videos. Meanwhile, every time I turn on my television, my needs are mostly met: my local broadcast channels, Sling TV for my cable, and the other services for everything else.
If Apple was smart, they would already have put an app on Roku (which is the tech built into my new TV, which auto-loads as soon as I turn the TV on). Instead, they're jerking around with Amazon on devices that may not even be there in a few years.
But not because I'm indifferent. Far from it. I enjoy Amazon Prime on my TV now because I own an Insignia 55" television which has Roku built in. Everything *except* Apple TV can be found on it: Sling TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Showtime Anytime, Crackle, CBS All Access, etc.
My Apple TV box was my go-to streaming device for several years, but the purchase of a new TV made it a no-brainer. And THAT is what Apple's issue seems to be now... not holding out for the right conditions by which it might agree (with Amazon in this case) on a streaming app, but whether the Apple TV can indeed hold out *as* a primary device. The television industry didn't wait for Apple or Amazon for their boxes. Instead, the manufacturers started preloading their devices with technology to make streaming boxes irrelevant.
I now have a TV for which I only ever use the Apple TV to play my iTunes videos. Meanwhile, every time I turn on my television, my needs are mostly met: my local broadcast channels, Sling TV for my cable, and the other services for everything else.
If Apple was smart, they would already have put an app on Roku (which is the tech built into my new TV, which auto-loads as soon as I turn the TV on). Instead, they're jerking around with Amazon on devices that may not even be there in a few years.
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This...
Amazon Video is already standard on most major Smart TVs and Blu-Ray players.
I personally don't care if it ever comes to ATV as it's built right into all of my TVs and even my Blu-Ray players.
I can get everything there (except iTunes of course). Amazon, Hulu, Vudu... the list goes on.
As more and more apps support chromecast, having an AppleTV is going to become moot for those who have Smart TVs. For now I use the Apple TV both professionally and personally for use with AirPlay. This is another reason Apple is likely to come out with their own TV display line.
My investment with Apple is such that I won't likely switch to another platform for movies and entertainment. Rentals of movies is one thing, buying content it another. I do have an Amazon App on my TV, and have been renting 4K content on it. Unfortunately the Amazon app has a problem with displaying HDR content correctly on the set, so I'm not renting as much from them as I used to. Without HDR, it's cheaper and faster just to rent it through iTunes and watch it at 1080p, so as not to tie up the available bandwidth.
And speaking of tying up a device ... when I'm watching a movie, I don't really want to be bothered with distractions, so tying up the phone is not really a problem. Besides, if I do get a call or an e-mail from a VIP, my iPhone alerts me anyway and can decide whether to pause the movie and take the call or respond to the e-mail or text. Also, if you're streaming a 4K HDR movie, the bandwidth demands are going to pretty much prevent you from using other devices for much else anyway. And in a family with several iOS devices, it's not a problem at all, assuming I want to keep using a device. I've personally got three iPhones available to me on any given movie night, as well as two iPads, and two Macs.
I also don't see it as an extra step at all. If you do, you're not using AirPlay correctly. Apple TV or App on an iPhone, you still have to navigate to the app, select the movie and stream it. Hitting the AirPlay button after the stream starts is not really a big deal. I also prefer using my iPhone as a remote, and I like having direct access to the app rather than trying to navigate what I consider a clumsy interface with a poorly designed remote from across the room.
A MUCH bigger issue for me than tying up the device, is being able to AirPlay a 4K HDR movie from a device. If Apple doesn't support 4K AirPlay streaming in the next OS updates, then that's the deal killer for me and why I wouldn't want to stream from my device.
I think Amazon well understood that Apple TV doesn't include a browser, if the app existed the buying option would not exist and it would have a note saying to buy content through a web browser, desktop or mobile. I will repeat what I said earlier, Amazon could have made a streaming only app, just like it does with iOS app, which is just a streaming app and no content can be bought through the app as far as I know. If they can do streaming only app for iOS, they can also do that for tvOS.
Another example - in the iOS app, Amazon lets HBO subscribers watch HBO content, but doesn't have a way of signing up for the HBO service through the Video app. The signing up happens externally. The ball from where I stand truly is in Amazon's court.
Ah well, my '16 Vizio M80D3 just added Amazon streaming via on-screen web apps, so I have a stop-gap. 
comparing "do sometime right, sell a lot of proctuct & have haps customers ready to buy more" and "do something half right, sell some product and have moaning, unsatisfied customers" I'd say its not the best stance for Apple. Someone there doesn't want it to succeed for some reason.
I don't have Amazon Prime, but I did buy a few things on amazon video a few years ago. My main service for this type of access is VUDU which has come to the AppleTv, and seems to work well. Since people are stressing prime here, would the amazon app for Apple TV do me any good then? I can accessed my purchased shows and movies from iOS, but will the TVOS have that, or be Prime membership only ? does anyone know ?