Exclusive: In OTT wars, Amazon will likely cost Apple and Google $100 million in sales this year
Amazon is a retailer. It is also the manufacturer of Fire TV, an over-the-top product that rivals Google Chromecast and Apple TV.
Focusing on increasing its market share among OTT players, Amazon last month removed Chromecast and Apple TV from its site, which will result in a dramatic decline in sales for Google and Apple, according to new research from 1010data.
1010data, which uses a panel of millions of online consumers, estimates that Amazon owned 75 per cent of U.S. sales of OTT devices between October 2014 and September 2015, with Chromecast accounting for 15.7 per cent and Apple TV accounting for 9.6% per cent.
Chromecast online sales amounted to $67 million over this time period (with 90 per cent of these sales coming through Amazon), while Apple TV sales amounted to $42 million (with 60 per cent of these sales coming through Amazon).
Based on the continuing growth of the OTT device market and the $85 million in sales that Chromecast and Apple TV did on Amazon in the past year, 1010data estimates that Amazon’s decision will cost Google and Apple more than $100 million in online sales in the next year.
While the Google Store is still not top-of-mind for consumers, many are familiar with Apple’s online store – and the company will likely push its next iteration of Apple TV, which opens for pre-orders in late October and begins shipping in early November, very hard.