Posts Tagged ‘Amazon’

eBay has never been a huge attraction for me as the idea of entering into auctions on-line just wasn’t something that I was that interested in.  However after hosting me on campus last year, I was convinced that eBay was trying to be more like Amazon in terms of buying experience and they were showcasing an interesting additional step of providing apps that could point you to stores that had products you might want to buy. In other words, they were moving beyond actions and into consumer-focused commerce much more aggressively.

When Amazon announced its $200 Fire tablet, it delivered a spark that many believe could finally light up Google’s Android in tablets. However, the aggressive price could also bring tough times for all those that already play in the sub-$200 segment. Will Kindle kill its new rivals, or will it open up a market that has been waiting for a breakthrough for more than a year?

This last year could have been titled the parade of iPad wannabes. We had a huge variety of Android-based products hit the market around the marginal Honeycomb “Vista” version of Amazon and only the Samsung Galaxy Tab did very well, which was because it was basically an iPad clone (so it became a litigation magnet). We had HP and the disastrous attempt to bring out the TouchPad, a product that clearly had potential, but may have contributed to getting Leo Apotheker fired. We got RIM’s Playbook, which seemed to be more of a gravestone for RIM than anything else. Now we have the Kindle Fire: Is it on fire or should Amazon just burn it? It is likely going to come down to how well Amazon builds demand for this product.

We have been huge fans of the idea of a Kindle Android tablet, as we believe that only Amazon has a platform that is powerful enough to challenge Apple’s iPad and iOS ecosystem. But who would have thought that Amazon is brave enough to cripple its tablet?

I won’t beat around the bush. It is Android’s only chance.

Amazon said that the Kindle Android app is the first Kindle app that can enables access to newspapers and magazines.

Amazon now offers is EC2 cloud hosting service with the option to support applications with GPU acceleration.

This one may be a hard sell: As successful as the Kindle is, the decision of publishers to price a boatload of books above their hardcover versions has brought up the Amazon customer base in arms. Is there more value in an eBook than in a hardcover? It may come down to perception and our perception is changing.

I’m a big fan of the Kindle and have purchased every one they have brought out with the exception of the new one. That’s because the last Kindle I purchased is the new Kindle DX and it’s not even 2 months old yet. This most recent Kindle is so hot it sold out within hours of being available and if you want to buy one, you will now have to wait until September to get it. That is pretty amazing for a non-Apple product outside of a holiday buying season.  So what’s so great about the new Kindle?  Well, price does make a difference.

It appears that Amazon may have hit a home run with its latest generation Kindle as both the 3G and Wi-Fi versions are “temporarily sold out”.

Amazon has just announced a new Kindle, which can now be ordered for just $139, if you don’t need the 3G feature, which adds $50 to the reader. It may be the first time, ereaders are truly affordable for the mass market as they move away from the $200 mark and close in on $100, what is potentially the sweetspot for e-readers. Amazon refuels the pricewar in ereaders, while it also effectively defending itself against Apple’s move into ereaders with a substantially more expensive iPad. Which could work out well for Amazon, if it does not loose track of current trends and Apple’s strategy.

Amazon recently said that it is selling now more ebooks than hardcover books, digital music sales are expected to surpass CD sales this year in the U.S. and the trend in game sales isn’t far behind. According to NPD, digital game sales are approaching parity with physical in-store sales. But clouds are already on the horizon as digital outlets have to worry about the popularity of free social network gaming and free mobile games.