Apple TV missing from Amazon’s best seller list, conspiracy theories ensue

By on Nov 11, 2010 at 3:44 PM
Hardware November 11, 2010

If you’re a conspiracy theorist, you might be interested in a finding by Business Insider. They have come to the conclusion that popular online retailer Amazon is directly manipulating their Top 100 list of electronics sold. There seems to be evidence that Apple’s Apple TV should actually be in the top 20 on the list, and here is why:

Currently, the no. 20 best-selling electronics gadget on Amazon is Roku’s XD streaming player, which is similar to the Apple TV.

But if you drill down to the list of Amazon’s best-selling Digital Media Devices, the Roku XD is listed as no. 4. No. 1 is the Apple TV, no. 2 is the Boxee Box by D-Link, no. 3 is the Roku XDS streaming player, and no. 4 is ths Roku XD player.

In theory, if each of those three devices is selling better than the Roku XD in the same category, they should be selling better than the Roku XD overall, too. So, in theory, the Apple TV is one of the top-20-or-so best-selling electronics, along with the Boxee Box and Roku XDS, and the Roku XD should be in the 20s somewhere.

We’ve reached out to Amazon for a comment, but we do have to admit, this is rather interesting, no? Just replace the word Apple with your favorite company if you don’t have a thing for Apple, but the top selling list we always assumed to be, well, the top selling products.

Read

Tags:
, , ,
24 Comments

Related Articles

  • Octotron

    Apple news just for the sake of writing about Apple.

    I am giving up on BGR :(

    • http://dethmashine.tumblr.com dethmaShine

      BGR might make sense but this is quite usual on amazon or any other website. This may not be an error actually. And yes, I quit BGR.

  • http://claimid.com/155 155

    I am disturbed that amazon is manipulating their best seller lists period.

    Don’t really care about apple tv.

    The headline should be: Evidence that amazon manipulates their best seller lists.

    • http://twitter.com/Snowx2k5 Neil Patrick

      Been living a naive life huh?

      • http://claimid.com/155 155

        Apparently I am.

        I wasn’t aware that Amazon was doing this. It makes sense. You wouldn’t want a low margin item to be a bestseller even though it is.

  • Anonymous

    Companies manipulate results from their own lists which aren’t regulated by a 3rd party. Definitely not news worthy. Not because its Apple, but because this happens in every industry whether maliciously or accidentally.

  • Dask

    I replaced the word “Apple TV” with “Apple” and it still sounds perfectly fine.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GP2WYAHXS6CRUREISWBGPUSUGE Michael

    Apple TV : Paying to watch per episode, not as popular as Steve Jobs thinks it is.

    • Anonymous

      Apple TV: Streaming local media ripped from existing collections for under $100, as Roku wishes it could do.

  • Counsel Dew

    Is the reason really important? Or, is this because it is an Apple product? Remember, this is for posterity so please be honest…

  • Anonymous

    You know the Amazon lists are based on ‘hourly’ sales and are in NO way a good indicator of anything beyond what was remotely popular during that single hour period the list is created from. Additionally the various lists do not use the same hour of sales. So, its very likely that in one time frame a few apple tvs sold with less roku and then a time later a few roku’s sold and no apple tvs.

    Best bet is just to wait for the companies to declare their shipped figures to retailers.

  • Anonymous

    Poor Apple. They should sue.

  • Len

    Cry me a river.

  • http://twitter.com/Kevniv Kevin N

    I dont think many non tech people will be buying.

  • Booboolala2000

    Its their list, like its apples app store. They can manipulate it to sell anything they want. There theory may be that the apple tv will sell anyway so lets move something with a better profit margin. And, don’t most purple that want our have apple tv, already have a mac book of some iteration and thus not need apple tv? I have a macbook pro, what does this do that the pro doesn’t?

  • TheNewReign

    The strange part is that at the end of the day Apple will still sell as many as they are going to sell. This box isn’t the product they are worried about selling. The product they want to really focus on is the actual TV that they will be selling before too long.

    When you have products that sell themselves it really doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing to help you or hurt you. You do what you do and people do what they do, buy your products.

  • TheMonkey

    Who cares. People will do research to see which one is better to suit their needs or just blindly pick one. Most of them won’t care if it is or isn’t on the best seller list.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BHMB52ZFMATI5KS7D4JT6UU7NA Eric W

      Sounds like the way the 2008 election went.

      • Beentheir

        I wish you would elect to shut the hell up. Dumb ass.

  • QNX Please

    BGR is upset that Apple isn’t #1 in something….. And people had doubts this wasn’t a fanboy site.

  • http://twitter.com/perderedeus Tim Gulics

    This is news? Ugh.

    I guess you can go back to Steve Jobs for direct sales figures, he’ll be honest with you. There was also no iPhone antenna problem… nope, never happened, some idiot just held his phone wrong.

  • Droid doesn’t

    Kind of like BGR posting their biased news. Interesting, no?

  • magic maker

    Don’t worry BGR Steve Jobb will still give you a hand job lol
    this isn’t a tech site it’s an apple Hub

    • Anonymous

      Then what are you doing here?

blog comments powered by Disqus