[notatoad]

>Netflix's problem is that there are no switching barriers to keep viewers loyal to Netflix.

That's also their biggest strength. Apple's got all their vendor lock in, amazon is trying to build vendor lock in with the kindle fire line, google is trying to build a vendor lock in with google play. If you buy into that ecosystem, it's a good way to keep you. But if you don't want to buy into any specific manufacturer, netflix is great. I can't watch iTunes movies on my android phone, and i can't watch google play movies on my iPad and i can't watch either on my roku, but i can watch netflix on all of them.

[twoodfin]

I don't think Amazon cares about vendor lock-in. They've already got your credit card number and are really, really good at selling stuff over the web. They want to "lock" you in with Prime, their recommendations engine, and the other cross-selling benefits they get from being by far the web's biggest retailer.

With the arrival of the iOS app this summer, I don't think I have a device I can't watch Amazon Instant on (TiVo, a couple of cheap Sony Blu-ray players, iPad, iPhone...)

[dave5104]

But how much do you think the average consumer cares about that (or is even smart enough to think about it)? Sure, we all understand the ecosystems because we're developers and we follow that sort of thing, but I'm not sure that the average consumer would see it the same way. If anything, they might be swayed by the whole "Oh, that will work with my iTunes account!" factor.

[CamperBob2]

Netflix's independence is potentially a big deal. In a rational world, the content producers would see Netflix's platform agnosticism as a big selling point. No producers want (or at least should want) their hit TV series or movie to be viewable only on iOS devices or Android devices or Windows devices.

[SoftwareMaven]

If the price is right, producers couldn't care less about platform lock. If Google, Apple, Amazon or anybody else is willing to pay the right number of dollars, they can throw the bits into /dev/null for all Hollywood cares.

[CamperBob2]

I don't know about that. Nothing like a major motion picture or TV series has ever been platform-locked, has it? Video games, yes, but not traditional "mainstream" entertainment.

[duaneb]

NFL is locked in. Should be interesting to see when they make the move to online. There is currently no way to watch NFL online in the US because networks pay a LOT of money for exclusive rights. With the amount of cash Apple has on hand, for example, we could see some huge shifts.