Amazon Echo Show price cut after losing YouTube

Amazon has slashed the price of the Echo Show, its touchscreen-fronted, Alexa-powered assistant, not long after Google unexpectedly yanked one of its most popular features. Most expensive of the Echo line-up, the Echo Show is the only model in the range to have a display, which Amazon uses to show videos, search results, products, and more. While it launched back in June at $230, it's now down to under $200.

Amazon is calling the price cut a "Fall Sale" but it's hard not to see it as at least a partial reaction to some unexpected bad news from Google at the end of September. The company blocked the Echo Show's ability to show YouTube videos – which Amazon had been pairing with voice search – citing unspecified terms-of-service violations. It means the Echo Show is now only capable of showing video from Amazon's own video service.

The retail behemoth is undoubtedly trying to restore that functionality, but a $30 price cut seems like a good stopgap while would-be users wait. Certainly, as we found in our Echo Show review, there's more to do with the Alexa assistant than just stream shows. The display can beam a preview from select home security cameras, for instance – including the Netgear Arlo Pro 2 announced today – in addition to showing song lyrics and more.

Amazon has been shy of announcing sales figures for any of the Echo line-up, so it's hard to say how the YouTube disappearance has affected demand. Still, there are plenty of annoyed owners in the reviews section, complaining that YouTube support was one of the primary reasons they bought the device, and frustrated that it now no longer offers it.

There may be more than just terms of service at the root of it. Google is reportedly working on an Echo Show rival of its own, internally codenamed "Manhattan", and effective building a display into its existing Google Home technology. In the process, it's not hard to imagine the company wanting to maximize its advantages, of which YouTube is certainly one.

Meanwhile the rest of the Echo line-up is facing some changes. Amazon announced several new models in September, including a smaller screen-fronted model, the Echo Spot, which isn't yet on sale. There's also a cheaper version of the original Echo, and a model promising better audio quality, the Echo Plus.