Recently an app called OnBootKodi allowed Fire TV owners to boot directly into Kodi on their Fire TV and Fire Stick. This app allowed users to bypass the Amazon Fire TV home screen. Well its seems that was a bit to much for Amazon to allow. Today Amazon blocked OnBootKodi from running on Fire TV devices. This was first spotted by AFTVnews.
This is only the 3rd time Amazon has ever blocked a app on the Fire TV. In the past Amazon had blocked FireStarter and FireTV Launcher both apps that bypassed the Amazon Fire TV home screen. For now it seems that Amazon just wants to make sure you land on their home screen before going into any apps.
So why does Amazon care about their home screen?
Well it is reported that Amazon sells the devices very close to cost. From there Amazon wants you to by buy content for the Fire TV allowing them to make money. So if you bypass the home screen it reduces their ability to make money from the Fire TV sale. Want to learn more about this? AFTVnews has a great post explaining the economics of the Fire TV.
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