Inside Amazon-dot-com

In its quarterly earnings announcement yesterday, Seattle based Amazon.com, the largest US eCommerce company, admitted that it has missed bith revenue and profit estimates for Q3, 2014. These disappointing third-quarter results see the online retailer’s shares at 9 percent lower than the 7 to 18 percent revenue growth that was originally forecasted. This loss has taken more than $15 billion off of Amazon’s market value (now at $144.7 billion) and seen their stock plummet 13 percent since the poor Q2 results announced in July. Amazon is reporting losses around $437 million resulting from failed product launches and various acquisitions and expansions that take the ecommerce company further and further away from their original charter and core competency. Amazon continues to invest heavily in hardware devices, expanding it to include a phone and dropping the word "Kindle" from their Tablet line of products, simplifying it to just Fire. However,  the hyped...

Less than an hour ago, Amazon prompted KDP authors (like me) to write an email to  Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch,  supporting their point of view in their negotiation with Hachette.   It's interesting on how Amazon is finally realizing that it's bullying tactics towards traditional media corporations that are already facing financial challenges are no longer working, and given the enormous size of Amazon, the public now views Amazon with suspicion and as the bully.  While in its email Amazon makes some valid points about how lower cost will actually increase the size of the business by increasing volume, it fails to mention that lowering prices of popular, top-rated eBooks will also result in increased sales of the Kindle devices, eventually allowing it to sell those devices at profit rather than selling them as a cost. This is called vertical competition, consumers have a annual budget for books in their mind and if eBooks are lot cheaper than books, then the br...

At some point while we were all sleeping, Amazon launched Prime Music, through which users can stream unlimited tracks from Amazon’s music catalog. This all, no doubt, in preparation for their upcoming smart phone release. Don’t get too excited—Amazon’s music catalog can boast around 1 million songs—and that’s about it. Music streaming competitors’ numbers are more in the 20-30 million range for, well, not an increased price to match that ratio.  Music industry critic Bob Lefsetz warns that the move is a step even further backwards from current music-streaming models via Apple and Spotify that take large percentages of profits from rights holders and musicians. The payment model is unclear, selection limited, and could turn out to be, as Lefsetz is quick to call it, “a disaster.”  He suggests that Competitors will only see an increase in users. The imperfect attempt at a music streaming service has larger repercussions. If Amazon hopes to have a successful smart pho...

The tiff between Amazon and book publisher Hachette continues to make waves, and everyone associated is getting vocal. Here’s a quick look at the situation: it all began when negations between internet biggie Amazon and Hatchette—owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world—went awry due to Amazon’s demand for price concessions from the publishing house. The subsequent controversy had grabbed a whole lotta eyeballs. The authors involved seem to have taken clear sides; they are either staunchly on the side of Amazon or in full support of Hachette—what’s more interesting is how either powerhoouse is retaliating. Once Hatchette refused price concessions, Amazon made its move. Hatchette’s publications saw their pre-order option saw removal, and certain authors have found themselves unlisted.  And there’s more! Forget Amazon’s usual discounts and be ready for lengthy delivery times. All of ...

In an open letter to Amazon customers on its website (partial image shown on the right), Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos announced launch of Prime Music, referring toit as the "the newest benefit of Prime membership".  The Prime Music allows Prime members to not only "listen ad-free to over a million songs", it allows them  to download those songs to their smartphones and Kindle devices to listen to them offline as well. It's different from other internet radio providers such as Pandora.  The message from Jeff Bezos also emphasized, several times, how Prime Music comes with Prime Playlist removing " one more barrier — deciding what to listen to." Amazon recognizes the issue of over-choice, how selecting what songs to listen to from a million songs could be daunting, so it has arranged them into hundreds of Prime Playlists which are (supposedly) created by music experts have created for you.    The message goes on to mention the list of popular sin...

Amazon is expanding their mobile computing products beyond the Kindle Fire line – products that do not come cheap. The Wall Street Journal reports that one such product of Amazon is a high-end phone that displays 3D images without the need for the user to wear 3D glasses. And that’s just the beginning. Amazon calls them as the Alphabet Projects – Projects A, B, C and D. Included in the projects are a set-top movie and TV show streaming device, and an audio streaming device. They could be released in the coming months, but no timetable is currently set for any of them.  The truth is, Amazon will be entering markets that are currently very crowded for their projects, along with having to create additional services for them. For example, the smartphone market is dominated by Apple and Samsung, and Amazon would have to negotiate terms with a wireless carrier. Its 3D screen, rumoured to be powered by Qualcomm chips, might vault them over, but it’s all speculation at this point. ...

Amazon.com Inc., the global leader in e-commerce, reported in a press release that customers have been buying “well over” one million Kindle devices a week, for three consecutive weeks  now. The tally of more than a million devices is across all the products in the Kindle family,  including Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch, Kindle Wi-Fi, and Kindle 3G with Keyboard.  In Amazon’s press release, Dave Limp, an executive for the company, called Kindle Fire “the  most successful product” Amazon has ever launched and asserted that customers are buying the  product because of its simplicity. He also claimed that Kindle Fire makes it “easy [for users] to  do the things they love” such as watching TV reruns and movies, surfing the Internet, reading,  enjoying music, and playing games.  Even though Amazon did not disclose the actual sales numbers for each device within the Kindle  family, the press release was obviously aimed at promoting Kindle Fi...