- Posts tagged Amazon
- Explore Amazon on posterous
Amazon's New Auto-Scaling DB Solution Looks Hot
Amazon just announced its new DynamoDB Web service that claims to enable database back-ends to Web apps to scale rapidly and smoothly, which, if true, would solve a problem a great many developers face.
This could be a very important development. I have at least two clients who will be taking a very close look in the next few days.
The Mystery of Pricing Kindle Books
OK, let's see.
Don't you think?
This new book I wanted to read on my Kindle apps costs $30 at retail (except of course nobody pays that, even in person at a store). Amazon.com offers it for $16.66 and, for most buyers, shipping and handling that would presumably bring it back up around $20. I assume that at that price, Amazon makes a profit.
So why does an electronically downloadable version -- with no printing, shipping or handling costs -- cost $14.99, only $1.67 less? Does this feel like price gouging to you? It does to me. It's good, old-fashioned American greed. (The book I was trying to buy was Age of Greed by Jeffrey Madrick, BTW). That's charging what the market will bear rather than charging to earn a reasonable profit.
So I didn't order the book. I'll wait for my local library to get a copy and check it out. For free. It won't be as timely or convenient, but it's a tiny protest. The price of an electronically delivered book should reflect the savings made by the publisher and the reseller so that the profit or mark-up on these books are not significantly higher than those on printed copies.
Don't you think?
Amazon Could Rock Tablet World With Smart Marketing
As Amazon.com readies its foray into tablet hardware this fall, the company could leap into a strong second-place dominance -- and perhaps ultimately challenge segment leader Apple -- with the judicious use of marketing offers. Already there are rumors that the new tablet, due out in October as a best guess, may include free access to some Amazon content (probably streaming video on demand) at least during an initial introductory period.
But it occurs to me that if Amazon were to make the cost of its tablet essentially appear to be free by making great marketing offers part of the package, it could change the game entirely.
But it occurs to me that if Amazon were to make the cost of its tablet essentially appear to be free by making great marketing offers part of the package, it could change the game entirely.
Let's say, e.g., that buyers of an Amazon tablet get a 10% or even 15% discount on all Kindle Store purchases until they had reached a limit that would, coincidentally, equal the tablet's purchase price. Or maybe extend that offer to everything offered in the Amazon stores. How about gift certificates whose value totals or exceeds the price of the tablet?
Amazon is in a unique position as a mass retailer offering a tablet to tie the two experiences together in ways that could make the new tablet offer too compelling to be resisted. That could be a highly successful marketing plan.
Two Weeks Past Deadline and Kindle's Still on iOS
Well, we're nearly halfway through July -- and as of today 12 days past Apple's announced deadline for iPhone and iPad apps to toe the line on in-app links to external Web sites for content purchase -- and there's been no change that anyone can detect in the Apple AppStore.
As regular readers know, I raised the issue of the June 30 deadline imposed by Apple demanding that stores like Amazon.com who offer an app (in this case the Kindle ereader app) that includes an inline link or button that takes the user outside the app to purchase content or add-on products, remove those links or face expulsion from the store.
Speculation in the industry as to what is actually going on here seems to center on the possibility that Apple's terms are sufficiently vague that either Apple has decided it probably can't enforce them and is simply looking the other way or there is some high-level, legal-based negotiating going on. Either way, it appears, that for the moment at least, all is well in Kindle-Apple Land.
