There’s no love lost between Google and Amazon, two of the biggest tech companies on the planet with market values topping $700 billion. News leaked out over the weekend that Amazon will no longer carry new products from Google’s Nest unit, which sparked Nest to decide to stop selling its remaining products on Amazon.
Business Insider broke the news, reporting that the escalating war is taking place over the lucrative smart home market. That’s a market where Amazon recently planted its flag in a big way, purchasing smart doorbell maker Ring for a reported price of more than $1 billion. Amazon also makes the Alexa-powered Echo devices, which have landed in more homes than the rival Google Home smart speaker.
Google’s Nest is best known for its thermostats, but it also makes smoke detectors and home security systems. Amazon and Google declined to comment in the Business Insider report.
Fortune’s David Z. Morris notes that the feud could raise antitrust questions around Amazon, potentially using its power as a retailer to prevent other companies from gaining a foothold in the smart home market. Amazon does sell a wide variety of smart home products on its retail site, including smart locks from Schlage and smart speakers from Sonos.
This is the latest chapter in a chippy relationship between Amazon and Google. Late last year, Google dropped YouTube from Amazon’s Echo Show device. Google’s Chromecast was supposed to have reappeared on Amazon last December after the product had been removed from the Amazon store two years prior, but it was reported last week that the streaming video devices still had not landed on Amazon’s virtual shelves.
Amazon also is taking direct aim at Google’s cash cow in the digital ad business, and Google is bolstering its online shopping efforts.
Watch this space in 2018.
