The competition between Apple and Amazon ebbs and flows, but it is always there. Apple and Amazon are massive financial behemoths
, with billions in revenue, that offer hardware, software, and services for consumers and businesses. This is not a result of just playing nice. Both companies have worked to achieve their respective decisions and will actively move to defend their statuses. This included making moves to stymie the other if their rival is encroaching on one of their key business drivers. This is understandable, but these moves can result in consumers or businesses caught in the crossfire.
Ideally, Apple will want their customers purchasing new hardware from them. This eliminates any profit sharing with other merchants and maintains a level of exclusivity that Apple fights to maintain for its public brand and products. If Apple had no profile on Amazon's website, Apple can avoid pressure to offer discounts and incentives that many Amazon customers typically expect to see when making purchase decisions on Amazon.com. By maintaining a lower profile but still present, Apple can get some sales but runs into third party sellers offering discounts, refurbished and factory new offerings versus recent and older products. Having a more robust offering acknowledges that there are a number of consumers who choose to make technology purchases through Amazon.
Apple wants to use Amazon where they can and thwart them everywhere else where it is reasonable to do so. However, the Kindle Fire tablets are selling really well. So well in fact that the Android tablet market belongs to Amazon in the United States. How many of these purchases could have been iPads? That is probably driving Apple's thinking here in regards to changing the previous decision not to offer a strong selection of hardware on their rival's website.
This may not be the decision that Apple wants, but the consumer will win in this scenario. The consumer can use the shopping cart and purchase experience that they prefer.
