Apple TV 4K Listing Appears on Amazon as Prime Video Launch Nears

I have been waiting for Amazon Prime Video on my AppleTV for a long time!

Good news. Too bad I'm going to have to continue the inconvenient process of manually switching between 4K HDR and 1080p SDR, in order to keep from getting fake HDR and poor upscaling applied to most of the Prime catalogue of offerings.

They actually said Amazon Prime Video to AppleTV coming SUMMER at the WWDC but I guess selective memory loss on all.

Apple said "later this year."

Amazon said "this year."

Great -- can't wait to stop streaming Amazon through the god-awful PS4 interface.

Let me rephrase the dialogue:

Apple: “we have these devices that are perfect for your prime app”

Amazon: “no thanks, too lazy to develop the app. And because we don’t have the app, we don’t want to sell your product as it doesn’t benefit us.”

Apple: “...”

Yes, almost certainly Apple is the saint and anyone else is the devil. In some other universe it might have gone like this:

Amazon: "To make the Prime app available on AppleTV, we want the same special financial deal you gave Netflix, rather than pay the full amount right off the top"

Apple: "No, we like our fatter margins, even if you would be storing & streaming all the content that might be purchased through your app from your own infrastructure."

Amazon: "When you give us the same deal you've given Netflix, we'll be interested. In the meantime, since you are not willing to compromise on a mutual win:win, we'll stop selling your AppleTV too."

Apple starts developing a 4K:apple:TV while others are already long-since there. Those others also have mostly the same apps as Apple PLUS Amazon Prime. Apple wants to launch with as much 4K content as possible. Someone internally decides to grant Amazon the same special deal in exchange for some Amazon concessions like selling the product on Amazon.com again. Amazon accepts and starts developing the app.

Apple at WWDC announces the Amazon Prime app coming soon.

Amazon develops the app, re-lists AppleTV in the store and then launches Amazon Prime.

Apple is more competitive with other 4K boxes by adding the Prime app and Prime 4K content. Apple still gets a pretty lucrative cut of Prime revenue and realizes sales of AppleTVs through the Amazon store. Amazon gets exposure to millions of new prospective Prime subscribers and gets to actually make some added profit (per the special deal) rather than give that extra to Apple. Consumers can get the last major missing streaming service from their preferred STB device. Win:win:win.

Now, your scenario could be correct and mine could be wrong, but I generally think about it in a "follow the money" way. Your scenario has Amazon being too lazy to profit on some segment of millions of AppleTV owners and refusing the retailer profit on selling AppleTVs in their store to boot. I'll concede that Amazon could be "lazy"... or evil... even at their own profit expense. But I'd bet my scenario is much more likely than yours (even if it fails to cast Apple in a purely saintly vision).

Apple and Amazon are friends again.

amazon "if you allow alexa on the amazon iOS Music app and amazon Prime on appleTV we will start selling appleTVs again"

apple "Yeh, okay!"

Synergy

Let me rephrase the dialogue:

Apple: “we have these devices that are perfect for your prime app”

Amazon: “no thanks, too lazy to develop the app. And because we don’t have the app, we don’t want to sell your product as it doesn’t benefit us.”

Apple: “...”