Update: Buzzfeed’s John Paczkowski, who has a good track record with Apple rumors, now reports that Apple will unveil the Amazon app at WWDC in June and that Amazon will resume selling Apple TVs. The app is still expected sometime later this summer, though the date is still subject to change.
Original story: At long last, Amazon will release an official Prime Video app for the Apple TV—at least, if a new report from Recode is to be believed. Citing “people familiar with the two companies,” the report indicates that Amazon and Apple are “close to an agreement” that would bring Amazon’s app to Apple’s box sometime over the summer.
Currently, watching Prime Video on an Apple TV requires you to sling it from the Prime Video app on an iPhone or iPad via AirPlay, a clunky-at-best solution that doesn’t always work well and (from my own personal experience) reduces video quality relative to a direct stream.
The arrival of a Prime Video app on the Apple TV would cap off almost two years of feuding between the companies. In October of 2015, shortly after the announcement of the fourth-generation Apple TV, Amazon said that it would no longer sell Apple TVs or Chromecasts in its stores. That remains true today—a search for “Chromecast” returns Roku and Fire TV sticks, while a search for “Apple TV” returns Roku and Fire TV boxes mixed with third-party Apple TV accessories.
At the time, Amazon said that it pulled the hardware because they didn’t offer Amazon Video apps; assuming that was the real reason and not just a convenient excuse to stop selling competitors’ hardware, we ought to see the Apple TV return to Amazon sometime after the Prime Video app is released.