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Amazon data usage on mobile devices strictly prohibited
- NathanKP 17y agoI wonder why they don't want the Amazon API used on mobile devices? That makes no sense at all.
- otakucode 17y agoThe explanation given when they put this policy in effect 2 years ago was that they hadn't decided on what they wanted to do in the mobile space yet and they just wanted to make sure nobody moved ahead without them. It's been 2 years and this is still their policy, so they must really be struggling over whether they want people to be able to give them money from mobile devices. Even something like this, with using Amazon data, fosters a much more active and healthy market that Amazon benefits from. That kind of thing is intangible, though, and businesspeople can be stupendous boneheads when it comes to such things. They assume the market is always open and active, with people integrating media products into their lives, regardless of what happens. They're wrong, and Amazons business will hurt if they make it more difficult for people to read about products Amazon carries (even if Amazon is not mentioned at any point). If some other source steps up, the market will still be helped, but Amazon will be left out in the cold as far as the information they currently gather from usage of their API, so it will end up hurting them one way or another.
- stingraycharles 17y agoPerhaps they want to make some exclusive deals with Apple in the future, and don't want to go through the hassle / bad publicity if they disable the Amazon API on mobile devices in the future ? Perhaps they have some plans with the Kindle and are afraid that having other mobile devices using the Amazon API will hurt those plans ?
- Tichy 17y agoMaybe they don't want you to go into a shop and look at the Amazon reviews, then buy the book in the shop.
- protomyth 17y agoWell, they have their own app, so I would say this probably isn't the reason.
- Luc 17y agoI did this today - they have an iPhone-optimized website.
- trezor 17y agoThey even have an iPhone app.
- oikjuhgbhn 17y agoOh come on !! Isn't it more likely you would browse through the book in a shop - check the price on Amazon, find it's 30-40% less and buy it there?
- clistctrl 17y agoof course, I've also done the opposite. I've gone into a shop then looked at the price on Amazon. Went with the cheaper one.
- watmough 17y agoI always imagined that it might break an agreement between publishers and Amazon, if people could price compare easily in bookstores. Obviously, B&N and Borders would likely be toast if you had an 'Amazon in Your Pocket' app that really worked. If publishers pulled their books, then Amazon might have some problems! As it is, Borders may already be toast, in which case, maybe Amazon will be in a better position.
- Lazlo_Nibble 17y agoThis can't be it, because Amazon already has their OWN mobile app in the App Store. They're only preventing third parties from using API data on mobile devices.
- cobralibre 17y agoCorrect, and the app seems to actively encourage poaching business from brick-and-mortar retailers: you can submit a photo of a product, and within a minute or so, you'll have a working link to an Amazon product page. I use it often to wishlist books I find at the bookstore but don't want to buy right away.
- perokreco 17y agoWhat stops you just going to Amazon's website. Why would you need a specific app?
- otakucode 17y agoAmazon is doing a great job to make sure that not only are they not represented in the mobile space, but that when they decide they want to be, it will have been so poisoned that no one will want to deal with them.
- pistoriusp 17y agoI wonder if anyone is working on an open database of books, movies and music... It might be interesting to work on something like this.
- Tichy 17y agoIf thing http://openlibrary.org/ http://openlibrary.org/ might be one (for books). There are some other sources for book data. For music http://musicbrainz.org/ http://musicbrainz.org/ might be a good source.
- aditya 17y agothere's http://themoviedb.org/ http://themoviedb.org/ for movies.
- nfnaaron 17y agoIf you want to know what's in the world's libraries, including probably your own, and your mom's: http://www.worldcat.org/ http://www.worldcat.org/ At the top is a search for: [Everything] [Books] [CDs] [DVDs] [Articles] Under that is a link to "Put WorldCat on your mobile phone." There's a collection of tools, including an API. You can use a bookmarklet to go from "product on page you're on now" to "details of product in the library." http://www.oclc.org/news/announcements/announcement333.htm http://www.oclc.org/news/announcements/announcement333.htm
- blasdel 17y agoThe OCLC data is absolutely not open: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/oclcscam http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/oclcscam
- ja27 17y agoSee the history of CDDB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB Information may want to be free, but people want to make money off of it.
- jrockway 17y agoTime to write an open-source mobile app that uses Amazon's API.
- felixc 17y agoWhat for? If your idea is to have an app that they can't "pin" on anyone in particular, you're missing the fact that you need an API key for access, and that can certainly be disabled.
- jp_sc 17y agoThey can't access Amazon from any mobile devices directly, but they could make the app query their servers and call the Amazon API from there (and even caching the results). Am I wrong?
- briansmith 17y agoThis is already covered in the article. You are wrong.
- protomyth 17y agoYep, you are wrong. Delicious Monster didn't query directly from the iPhone, but it still violated the TOS because it used the data gathered by the desktop version on the iPhone. So the TOS states "No using data from Amazon on a mobile device".
- natemartin 17y agoDoes this mean that any webapp that uses Amazon's API is prohibited, if someone loads it from their iPhone? So technically then, any use of the Amazon's API is prohibited. Great decision guys!