Google says it will remove YouTube from Amazon Fire TV from January 1. At the same time the videosharing website will also be removed from Amazon’s Echo Show.
In a statement, Google said it was forced to react to Amazon’s lack of reciprocity. “We’ve been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other’s products and services. But Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of Nest’s latest products.”
There are discrepancies in what the Google and Amazon allow each other to do. For example, it’s possible to control Google’s smart heating system Nest from an Alexa, but Amazon’s stores do not stock the full Nest range, such as a new security device. Nor can you pick up a Google Home in the Amazon store.
In response, Amazon released this statement: “Echo Show and Fire TV now display a standard web view of YouTube.com and point customers directly to YouTube’s existing website. Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website. We hope to resolve this with Google as soon as possible.”
The two big beasts of the online world have been gradually entering each other’s territory. Amazon has been looking at online advertising while commercial breaks in the run up to Christmas offer consumers a choice between Google Home and Amazon Echo.
The video version of the Echo, the Amazon Echo Show, introduced by Amazon in the spring merges the smart device with a video touch screen. Google said its YouTube implementation had broken its terms and conditions.
Strategy Analytics estimates Amazon Alexa will be on 68 percent of all smart speakers by the end of this quarter. The research company suggests the market will be split between Amazon, Google and Chinese-firm Baidu.
They face a new competitor later when Apple’s Homepod, based on the iPhone’s Siri, enters the market.
