Apple reportedly cut a deal to get cleaner Amazon pages


Apple struck a deal with Amazon to strip competitors’ ads off of pages for iPhones, iPads MacBooks, and its other products, according to a report from Insider. The agreement makes search results and product pages for Apple devices cleaner than those of competitors.
While Amazon still lists competing products on search result pages for Apple products, it limits the ads it sticks above, below, and between results. For example, when you search for an iPhone 15 on Amazon, you’ll only see an Apple product in a banner at the top of the page along with another ad banner at the very bottom. Meanwhile, searches for competing devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S23, surface ads for other products and services throughout the results page.
In addition to cleaning up Apple’s search results, Insider points out that Amazon cuts down on the ads for Apple’s product pages as well. Instead of advertising “products related to this item” and items rated “4 stars and above,” the pages for Apple products are relatively ad-free. The same can’t be said for product pages from companies like Samsung, which are often stuffed with recommended items from other brands lower down the page.
The ad-free pages stem from a 2018 agreement Apple made to sell its products on Amazon, according to Insider. In an email previously released by the House Judiciary Committee, Jeff Wilke, Amazon’s former retail chief, wrote, “We understand that Apple does not want to drive sales to competing brands in search or detail pages… On product detail pages, we understand that Apple does not want to see any product placement that recommends non-Apple products.”
Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz confirmed the arrangement to The Verge, stating that it limits advertising in spaces with certain Apple-related queries. It’s still not clear if Apple compensates Amazon for the ad space it’s hogging — and if so, how much. After all, Wilke’s email to Amazon said, “Apple would need to purchase these placements or compensate Amazon for the lost ad revenue.”
The “junk” ads Amazon places around its marketplace are one of the behaviors the Federal Trade Commission points to in its antitrust lawsuit against the company, stating that it extracts “billions of dollars through increased advertising despite worsening its services for customers.” By mostly avoiding them, Apple could have a leg up on other retailers on Amazon.
Apple struck a deal with Amazon to strip competitors’ ads off of pages for iPhones, iPads MacBooks, and its other products, according to a report from Insider. The agreement makes search results and product pages for Apple devices cleaner than those of competitors. While Amazon still lists competing products on…
Recent Posts
- The iOS 18.4 beta brings Matter robot vacuum support
- Philips Monitors is now offering a whopping 5-year warranty on some of its displays, including a gorgeous KVM-enabled business monitor
- The secretive X-37B space plane snapped this picture of Earth from orbit
- Beyond 100TB, here’s how Western Digital is betting on heat dot magnetic recording to reach the storage skies
- The end of an era? TSMC, Broadcom could tear apart Intel’s legendary business after 57 years by separating its foundry and chip design
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010