Amazon Instant Video on Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000798971

by stevewilhelm • 14 years ago

28 33 14 years ago

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sami36• 14 years ago

Come on Amazon, bring on Airplay !

tvon• 14 years ago

FWIW it has been available on the iPad for some time, but I think the iPhone/iPod Touch is new.

kungfooey2• 14 years ago

I'll be the first to ask: Why not on Android?

What does this strategy get them? Are they afraid of cannibalizing Fire sales? It would seem to me that this would be a short-sighted concern, given the number of Android owners out there that would happily pay for Instant Video (myself included).

I don't think the higher-ups at Amazon are slow in the head, so I assume they have some reason for this, but I can't think of it.

w1ntermute4• 14 years ago

Amazon Instant Video is the only advantage a Kindle Fire has over a Nexus 7. Without that, there's absolutely no reason to buy a Kindle Fire.

kungfooey2• 14 years ago

I completely agree with you. But are they really selling enough Kindle Fires to make up for the potential purchases from the Android legion?

palebluedot2• 14 years ago

I agree. However, the Kindle Fire exists primarily to facilitate sales, including video sales. I don't understand why they are so passive aggressive towards Android users who do not buy the Kindle Fire, but want to rent videos. Honestly, as an Amazon prime subscriber, this dismissive Android treatment diminishes the value of Amazon's ecosystem for me.

borlak• 14 years ago

Looking on the Amazon Kindle store I don't see an app for Amazon Instant Videos, unless it's simply on the Fire by default (and not removable)?

larsberg2• 14 years ago

Having both, I find that the Kindle Fire HD's speakers and feel in the hand are also a bit nicer.

That said, the horrible app store and out of date android build get old. More than half of my apps on it are APKs I got from the support staff of the various companies and have to manually update. Since the Google Play store also won't let you just download the APK or run on the Kindle Fire (two play at that exclusivity game!).

ConstantineXVI2• 14 years ago

Amazon doesn't sell phones, though. No clear reason to not support Android phones like they're supporting the iPhone.

rjv2• 14 years ago

Does Amazon even really want to sell the Kindle Fire? Bezos admitted that they make little to nothing on the hardware sales. It's just a window into their ecosystem; one that I'd be happy to patronize if it were completely platform agnostic.

bentruitt• 14 years ago

I don't understand the logic behind lack of airplay support. Can anyone explain the rationale?

ConstantineXVI2• 14 years ago

If I had to guess, licensing. I imagine studios see AirPlay (legitimately or not) as a DRM backdoor by letting the stream out of the app; and thus don't allow it. Note HBO Go and Netflix apps don't allow it either.

kaolinite• 14 years ago

Netflix allows it (in the UK, at least). I use it every so often when my Apple TV borks.

You're quite possibly right though. The 4oD app (British TV channel's streaming service) also blocks Airplay for licensing reasons.

jabo2• 14 years ago

Netflix does allow AirPlay in the US.

jonknee• 14 years ago

I believe HBO's reason is that they're not using MPMoviePlayerController (the default video player). It looks like the native one, but I remember seeing jaggies around the icons after upgrading to the iPad Retina.

If I had to guess, it would be that they have some sort of proprietary DRM going on and have their own player for it.

marklubi• 14 years ago

In the past I've worked on a number of mobile projects for very large organizations (e.g., major sports organizations) that have restricted certain video streams based on the screen size of the device.

In most of these cases, it was due to contracts that were made 5-10+ years ago that gave some company the exclusive rights to their video on various size screens (e.g., 'screens less than 5" diagonally'), or even TV/'Not TV'. Sometimes it was even split up between companies across 3 or 4 different ranges of screen sizes.

In some cases, we had to build the apps to use Company A video streams on iPhones, and Company B streams on iPads. To make things worse (at least for the consumer), sometimes the app was allowed to AirPlay from the iPad but not from the iPhone, or even not at all, because of these contracts.

julianb• 14 years ago

Macworld recently wrote about this: http://www.macworld.com/article/1168038/playing_amazon_insta...

As others have commented, it's a licensing issue.

One workaround is loading the Amazon Video Player in Safari on a Mac, then mirroring the display on AppleTV. Looks best in full screen mode.

rogerchucker• 14 years ago

Pretty scummy to not have Airplay on your first version.

Kurtz79• 14 years ago

As often happens, my excitement was short lived :

"Is Amazon Instant Video available on Apple devices outside of the United States?

No, Amazon Instant Video on Apple devices is currently available only in the 50 US states and District of Columbia."

The same goes with the different app stores by country... I understand the bureocratic hardships, but it's hard to believe that in the age of globalization we can't have such services at global level.

lrm• 14 years ago

This. I'm an American living in Mexico. I have an Amazon Prime account but can't watch any of the videos here.

axlerunner• 14 years ago

WiFi only??? wtf

clarky07• 14 years ago

Without Airplay this is mostly worthless to me. I just don't sit down and watch movies on my phone. I'd like to stop using my xbox (and paying for xbox live) for amazon+netflix+hulu, but apple tv doesn't have all of them yet. I should probably get a roku, but i'd like to also get airplay in addition to the above 3. :-(

jabo2• 14 years ago

Exactly my dilemma. And Roku doesn't play YouTube.

firemanx• 14 years ago

We bought a Vizio 42 inch on sale last year for about $300, and it plays everything we've ever needed - Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, Hulu, YouTube, Pandora. It's definitely more expensive than a Roku, but did the trick.

Come to think of it, the Samsung Blu-Ray player we bought the year before also plays all of those services, too.

Both devices have been great - wireless support and smooth interfaces.

hnriot• 14 years ago

The title is misleading, Amazin video has been available on the iPad for a while. This update brings it to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

mrbgty• 14 years ago

This is awesome but still only available if you've got Wifi access.

Amazon Instant Video on Apple iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch

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