Jeff Dunn
Amazon and Google haven’t played nicely with each other over the past few years, but consumers were just thrown a bone. Amazon has finally restocked Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra devices in its online store, selling them for $35 and $69, respectively.
Back in 2015, Amazon pulled Chromecast devices from its store after it dictated that it would only sell streaming devices that support its own Prime Video service. Since the Chromecast did not support the service, Amazon claimed it would cause “customer confusion” if it offered the Google device for purchase.
The same strange rule applied to the Apple TV, which Amazon didn’t sell for some time as well. But Amazon released its Prime Video app for Apple TV this time last year, and Apple’s set-top box reappeared on Amazon quickly after that.
At the time, Amazon also said that Chromecast devices would come back to its online store. While listings for the Chromecast and Chromecast Ultra reappeared on Amazon, the devices were always listed as “currently unavailable.”
That changed late last night when Android Police first spotted the updated listings for both the third-generation Chromecast and the Chromecast Ultra devices. Both are listed as in stock and shipped and sold by Amazon, and both are available for Prime free one-day shipping.
It’s unclear why Amazon brought both Chromecasts back to its store now. Amazon hasn’t released Prime Video functionality for Chromecasts yet, and while it’s unlikely to do so soon, it’s still a possibility. The competition between Amazon and Google remains: as of late, both companies are trying to one-up the other with their own AI and smart speaker systems.
It’s also worth noting that a Google-sanctioned version of YouTube still doesn’t work on Amazon products. Last September, Google removed the YouTube app from Amazon’s Echo Show device, claiming it offered a “broken user experience” and violated Google’s “terms of service.” A few months later, Google vowed to pull YouTube from all Fire TV devices, and the app disappeared from Amazon’s streaming products shortly after.
The decision to finally stock Chromecasts may have come from a successful negotiation between the two tech giants. It’s also possible that Amazon saw the opportunity to grab the attention of holiday shoppers by offering Google’s affordable streaming devices during this busy time of year. Ars has reached out to Amazon for further comment.
