2014-05-09, 00:17
(2014-05-07, 20:22)who.is.matt Wrote:(2014-05-07, 20:13)lartomar2002 Wrote: I do not think Amazon will ever support XBMC on the Fire because they can not generate any revenue from it. Just the opposite, they will lose revenue because most people will use XBMC rather than rent or buy videos from their site. Also they will lose what ever moneys they get from Netflix when someone rents a video.
So why do they allow developers to submit free apps? Why do they even offer a "free app of the day" program? Because even if Amazon isn't directly making money from an app, more apps make the devices more useful, and therefore more appealing to customers. The more that customers use the device, the more likely they are to use Amazon's services.
XBMC fills the same role as Plex, which is fine software but a lot of people aren't going to want to pay $5 for an app that requires them to also install Plex Media Server on another computer before they can really use it. So that leaves a lot of customers either not interested in the Fire TV since it otherwise can't play local media, or else sideloading XBMC. I'm hoping that Amazon will see the wisdom in putting a launcher for XBMC in the Fire TV's App menu, considering the alternative is exactly what a lot of people have been discussing in this thread: using other side-loaded apps like Llama to bypass the Fire TV interface entirely.
To gain a .01% additional market share? XBMC doesn't have enough users to justify Amazon going out of their way to appease XBMC useres. XBMC devs will have to go out of their way to get XBMC launchers/XBMC apps in the Amazon store and XBMC devs have already expressed 0 interest in doing so.
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Amazon doesn't have to lift a finger. And neither do the XBMC developers. Amazon simply has to live up to its claim that the Fire TV has an "open ecosystem" (which was one of the points raised in the press conference that introduced the Fire TV). Anyone can submit an app to the App Store, and as long as an app submitted to the App Store doesn't violate the posted guidelines and restrictions, it should be accepted, right? That's what an "open ecosystem" means. If XBMC remote apps are accepted into the App Store (and there were 3 of them the last time I checked, including the official remote app), why wouldn't something like a launcher for sideloaded versions of XBMC? Neither violates any of the App Store guidelines or restrictions.
Amazon doesn't have to actively support XBMC on the Fire TV. It just doesn't have to actively oppose it.
