Do you have a source? I searched and got this story [0], that says Bezos wanted "Prime Video Player to be a pack-in app on units sold through Amazon" and Google/Apple refused, so he pulled it.

0: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2016/06/amazon-ceo-explains...

uh, for chromecast, they have an open API and you are responsible for making your android app compatible with that. There are no built in apps for chromecast.

I'd refer you to Ben Edelman's explanation of the Google MADA. http://www.benedelman.org/news/021314-1.html (Note: He has been paid to consult for Microsoft, he's a biased source. But he's the person who initially discovered these agreements and put them somewhere public on the Internet.)

EDIT: Sidebar, but the whole "Private business discussions should stay private" comment in your link... Bezos knows how appalled we'd all be if we saw the way these companies acted behind closed doors. There's a reason the MADA is confidential too.

There's zero mention of Amazon there. My link has a purported quote direct from Bezos on the issue. If you want to make the case that Amazon's Fire devices aren't Google-suite compatible because they don't follow Google's requirements, uh, yeah, that's fine. I don't see the conflict.

That has nothing to do with Prime Video on Android (i.e. in Google Play) not supporting Google Cast. That's an intentional decision by Amazon. To enable Chromecast in their iOS/GPlay apps, Amazon just needs to register the app (https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/registration), not agree to the MADA on other devices.

Amazon might as well ban all Microsoft products because MS doesn't allow Amazon to replace Cortana with Alexa on all sold-thru-Amazon PCs.

Uh, that doesn't put Amazon in the right. It just puts both of them in the wrong.

Any time a company starts to try to compete with their own vendors, things get awkward really quickly.

When Amazon was selling other people's products, there were no problems. Now they have their own, and any time they push those in favor of a competing option that they used to sell without any qualms they're going to be in trouble.

Apple has this same problem, but it's mostly limited to accessories. If they stopped selling Belkin and Beats and LaCie in their stores, we'd hear a similar clamor and people would be justified in being pissed off.

By that logic, one could I think make an argument that Apple are being jerks by not carrying Logitech products in their physical or online stores. Considering Logitech (no affiliation) has without exception made the best mice for OS X for over 15 years, Apple offering their overdesigned and underdelivered 'mice' and excluding Logitech is a protectionist move.

I believe Apple bought Beats...

I don't disagree that Amazon has antitrust issues, but this simply isn't an example of it. Amazon is arguably trying to ensure competition (in this case, their competing platform) survives against an illegal anticompetitive action.

The exact terms that Google uses to block Amazon devices from using Chromecast and other Google Apps is the same one they're expected to face a new recordbreaking fine for in the EU (larger than the last one) by the end the year.

I mean, I guess I could be sold on the statement that it's two behemoths throwing around their leverage to try and force each other to play ball.

Na that's a bunch of BS Amazon came up with to validate their position. There is nothing stopping Amazon from putting Chromecast app support other than Amazon. The only thing I can guess is Amazon wanted chromecast to enable support for their player format and chromecast didnt'.

The Chromecast app is a Google App. Google App access is conditional on agreeing to a Google contract called the MADA which requires device makers preinstall all of their software and set Google Search as default.

One of those apps is Google Play Books. So in order for Google to permit them to support Chromecast, Amazon would've had to agree to pre-install their competitor's ebook store on every single Kindle.

See the issue?

I read the Google Cast SDK license agreement and didn't see anything about search engines or requiring certain apps to be installed.

The Cast SDK is not at issue, the Google Cast app likely is. (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...)

Additionally, I'm pretty sure one of the conditions is also to make the Play Store the primary (if not only) preinstalled source of apps for the device. This conflicts with Amazon's own app store, which is integrated into the Amazon app (as distributed by Amazon; the one on the Play Store omits this feature).

Hell, the whole Play Store is basically a direct competitor to Amazon's multimedia offerings. While Amazon's own behavior is scummy, it's also unsurprising given the situation.

That would be for adding chromecast support to their devices... doesn't preclude them from supporting chromecast, or having Amazon Video in the Google Play store, supporting chromecast for playback.

Adding Chromecast support to their devices is what this blockage is about. Amazon doesn't want to sell devices that won't be supported by their Kindle Fire line of products.

They also already have a contract with Bing for search.

It's a prisoner's dilemma, and they are structurally locked into the defect position. Neither company can switch to cooperating of its own accord without coordinating with the other.

It's simply a coordination problem.

If it were simply a coordination problem, Sundar has Jeff's phone number.

Google's entire business model around Android depends on withholding their apps unless manufacturers agree to preload their apps and set default search and the like. It's not a coordination issue, their whole business depends on them not backing down on the requirement.

And being required to preload Google Play Books, a direct competitor to Amazon's Kindle platform, is similarly fundamentally unacceptable to Amazon. These two companies are completely unable to come to terms on this because their requirements are so blatantly opposed to each others' businesses.

As these mega-conglomerates start selling everything under the sun service-wise in lock-in ecosystems, these sorts of clashes are likely to increase in impact and number.