According to Apple, the new A4-powered AppleTV has been a modest success, selling over 250,000 units by mid-October, but despite this, it’s not listed in Amazon.com’s list of the top 100 electronics…. and some people smell a conspiracy.
In a nutshell, here’s the rationale: in Amazon.com’s list of top 100 electronic devices, the Roku XD streaming media player is listed at number 20. I actually think it’s a better media player than the Apple TV, and the Roku brand has momentum in the space, so that’s fine… but the AppleTV’s absence from the Amazon Top 100 Electronics list becomes a lot more suspect when you consider the fact that it’s at a number two sales ranking above the Roku XD at number on Amazon’s list of bestselling digital media devices. The recently released Boxee Box is at number one.
A couple of points: Amazon’s Top 100 Electronics List does not represent itself as being a bestseller list and even Amazon’s bestseller lists take factors like availability and hourly sales into account. All things considered, then, it’s possible that the Top 100 Electronics List is largely weighted editorially as a list of bestselling gadgets that Amazon actually likes.
In that case, Amazon might very well weight the top 100 electronics list to include gadgets that don’t willfully ignore Amazon’s service. The Boxee Box and Roku XD both support Amazon Video On Demand, for example, where the AppleTV does not; on the other hand, other Apple products in the top 100 electronics list, like the iPhone and iPad, do at least support the option of downloading the Kindle app.
Of course, there’s a simpler explanation still: it’s a glitch or an oversight. That’s my personal theory. At the end of the day, Amazon’s about selling products, and the AppleTV is selling well enough they’re not going to want to hide it from shoppers, no matter how burned they feel by Apple giving their streaming Video On Demand service the cold shoulder.
