Have you checked out Amazon.com lately? I haven’t because I’ve been saving up for a new car. Amazon is dangerous. So dangerous that I spent close to $7,000 there last year. Yeah, I’m serious.
Previously, the sidebar started with books and went from there, now we see something different. For the first time ever, I see Instant videos, MP3s & Cloud Player, Amazon Cloud Drive, Kindle, Appstore for Android, Digital Games & Software and Audible Audiobooks. There are nearly as many featured sections that are digitally delivered than there are physical goods that require shipment. Naturally, we all understand that Amazon makes more money shipping physical goods to our homes and people continue to visit Amazon.com never glancing at this sidebar and opting to search for what they’re looking for. I’m sure us iPad owners continue to get that tingle in our spine that this is the 2nd year in a row that Kindle has been on the front page and not products relevant to my buying habits. It’s a business decision that I don’t complain about too much.
Perhaps this is something I’m seeing simply because I’m a prime subscriber? I’m not sure but they’re pretty much asking me to buy their digital video and audio files and store them on cloud drive (for free up to 5 gigabytes) and buy a few digital books and perhaps get that Android app store installed on my Droid which, by the way can be had for $1 with a new Verizon contract shipped in 2 days since I’m a prime member.
Wow Amazon, sure I’ll add a Kindle to my order for an extra $139.
The largest and most successful online marketplace has gone “all-in” on digital. They had to, not because iTunes posed that much of a threat simply selling movies and music but because, Amazon didn’t own that market. Amazon may be selling a million BBQ grills every April with “king of the grill” aprons as a recommended addition for only $9.99 more but they weren’t owning digital. Kindle was the first foray and after selling a few million of them, they are competing with everything Apple including their own app store.
I say good work to Amazon. There may never be a day when things aren’t physically shipped to our homes, but if there is, Amazon will be the leader, not Apple.
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