Amazon Video For Apple TV And Other Apple Rumors

For as long as Apple TV has been around in its current mini-cube form, people have been using it to access Netflix and asking how long until they could access Amazon Video, which offers Amazon Prime customers free access to a variety of titles, including several Amazon Studios original shows and movies in addition to several HBO titles.

At one time, when the second generation of the Apple TV’s cube hit the market, it seemed Amazon Video for Apple TV was only a short time away from being a reality.

With that in mind, Tech Insider is asking whatever happened to the glorious marriage of Amazon Video and Apple TV.

“We got even more hope about five months ago when an Amazon employee supposedly told a customer that the Amazon Video app was in the works and was expected to launch within weeks,” Tech Insider reported. “But it never happened.”

The reason it never happened, the site speculates, is because of the drain on profits Amazon would experience by offering its Amazon Video service on Apple TV.

“Apple takes a 30% cut of anything sold within apps, although there are reports that some companies like Hulu and HBO have negotiated lower rates.

“Amazon Video works two ways: It has a Netflix-like, all-you-can-eat streaming product that’s free if you’re already an Amazon Prime member. (You can now pay $8.99 per month for just for the streaming service, but Prime is a better deal.) It also has a digital store that lets you buy or rent movies and TV shows, just like you can on iTunes.

“To get around Apple’s ‘30% rule,’ Amazon’s apps on Apple devices don’t let you buy digital products like Kindle books or videos. Instead, you have to buy them from Amazon.com and they appear on your Apple device after you log in.”

This means anyone currently using these apps goes into Safari or the web browser of their choice to make the purchase, something that won’t necessarily be available with Apple TV. And even if the option was available for Apple TV, Amazon Video users are highly unlikely to take the extra step for the simple reason that it is not user friendly. It adds time to the process and many people simply want to purchase and get started. It is how the app stores on Apple and Android phones have conditioned consumers these days.

So while there was talk of introducing an app for Amazon Video on Apple TV — and I have heard the promises from Amazon employees, too — it is unlikely to happen anytime soon, especially since Amazon recently reported record earnings, increasing founder and CEO Jeff Bezos net worth by $6 billion in 20 minutes.

Amazon Video for Apple TV, or reasons for no Amazon Video for Apple TV, is not the only Apple rumor floating around right now. Images of Apple’s new iPhone 7 have apparently been leaked, and Tech Insider has taken a look at the device expected for release later this year.

According to Tech Insider, the camera still juts out a bit from the body of the phone, but the phone itself now includes a so-called “dual camera.” What is a dual camera, you ask? Tech Insider says no one really knows and that it may only be available on the “pro” versions of the iPhone 7. In other words, the larger version of the phone gets the so-called “dual camera.”

As for other features on the new phone, one of the worst kept secrets in the tech industry is the new iPhone’s lack of a headphone jack for earplugs, which Tech Insider said appears to be real with the leaked images it has reviewed.

Will you be purchasing the new iPhone 7 later this year? And are you upset about the lack of Amazon Video for Apple TV? Let us know in the comments section below.

[Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images]