Jordan O'BrienAmazon and Google’s never-ending tit-for-tat continues to wage on, with the latest in this long-running saga dragging Nest’s smart home products into the fight. That’s because Amazon has announced that it has declined the opportunity to offer some of the company’s latest products, like the Nest Cam IQ and Nest Thermostat E, and in response Nest has decided to pull all of its products from the online store.
The saga began in December, when Amazon was first offered the opportunity to sell the new products. At the time, Amazon supposedly declined, and instead opted to ignore the products and repeated requests from Nest employees for an explanation. Then, according to Business Insider, Amazon suddenly responded that the decision ‘came from the top’, which could allude to the decision having been made by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
Nest took this obvious snub badly, and it has responded by notifying Amazon that it will not be restocking any of the products that are currently on its online store. That means once Amazon runs out of stock for products like the original Nest Cam and Nest Learning Thermostat, it won’t receive anymore, effectively ending the two companies’ relationship.
The targeting of Nest is definitely odd, considering it was done at a time when Google and Nest were still separate entities under the Alphabet umbrella. That could mean Amazon has a bigger issue with the parent company of Google, rather than just the search engine giant itself.
It’s no surprise that the two companies continue to wage war with each other. Amazon has been particularly vicious in its attacks on Google, already refusing to sell devices like the Google Home or Chromecast, and excluding Prime Video from the Google Play store for what seemed like forever. Google then decided to respond to Amazon’s anti-consumer stance, by removing YouTube from Amazon’s Fire TV and Echo Show/Spot smart speakers.
Despite the fierce battle, things did look on the mend at the tail end of 2017. That’s because Amazon announced that it would resume sales of the Chromecast, although the Google Home would remain out in the cold, while Google would agree to restore access to YouTube on Amazon’s devices. Unfortunately, three months on the Chromecast still isn’t available on Amazon, and YouTube remains unavailable on the Fire TV.
The battle has the potential to hurt Amazon more than it will Google. Amazon is well-known for being a one stop shop for all products, and Nest offers some of the most popular on the market. Those wanting a smart thermostat will now likely go elsewhere, rather than purchasing through Amazon. The retailer’s Fire TV is also being strangled from its lack of support for arguably one of the most popular apps on any smart TV platform, YouTube.