Amazon's Echo Show speaker now $200 after YouTube retreat
Amazon Echo Show speaker sales have suffered since YouTube left, reports claim. Now it's on sale for $200.
Amazon on Monday slashed the price of its Echo Show from $230 to $200. As the most expensive of Amazon's many Alexa-enabled smart speakers, the Echo Show has a built-in screen lets you view a security camera's live feed, and, up until recently, also watch YouTube videos.
That all changed in late September when a disagreement over how YouTube would be used on the Echo Show led Google's video streaming site to remove support from the smart speaker entirely. The Echo Show's sales have suffered ever since, according to a report in Variety.
Amazon, apparently caught off guard by the decision, issued the following statement:
Google made a change today at around 3 p.m. YouTube used to be available to our shared customers on Echo Show. As of this afternoon, Google has chosen to no longer make YouTube available on Echo Show, without explanation and without notification to customers. There is no technical reason for that decision, which is disappointing and hurts both of our customers.
Buy an Amazon Echo Show for $200 for a limited time.
Google's statement instead referenced terms of service violations:
We've been in negotiations with Amazon for a long time, working towards an agreement that provides great experiences for customers on both platforms. Amazon's implementation of YouTube on the Echo Show violates our terms of service, creating a broken user experience. We hope to be able to reach an agreement and resolve these issues soon.
Putting the Echo Show on sale could be an attempt to deal with the lost sales, although Amazon says the two are unrelated.
"The $30 promotion is a limited promotion that was planned well before the removal of YouTube came to light," an Amazon representative said. "We have circulars that are currently in print and have been since last weekend. As you probably know, it takes weeks to plan, print, work with retailers and get circulars in the hands of customers."
Google did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.
The Echo Show is also available, at time of publication, for $180 from Home Depot.