Yes, Really! Why shouldn’t they. Amazon, the biggest e-commerce retailer, transformed itself from a book e-tailer to the titan of the purchasing web. They are a digital content powerhouse. I suspect this new smart phone will be so integrated with Amazon services. They have a huge market share in cloud storage services, you can download digital content such as books, digital music and video effortlessly, and not to mention Kindle e-Reader and Kindle Fire tablets. The own the e-commerce sites Zappos.com, Endless.com, Shopbop.com.
This will be a huge disruption in the smart phone field and all the major tech websites are abuzz. It’s going to be the clash of the titans – Amazon, Google, and Apple. Could the recent fight between Amazon and Apple precipitate this new service?
According to TheEconomist.com, “The most hard-fought battle between them so far has been in the e-book market. Amazon accounted for some two-thirds of all digital-book downloads in America last year. Apple accounted for just 5%, but it has been trying to woo publishers away from Amazon with an aggressive strategy that gives them more freedom to determine e-book prices than under Amazon’s terms.”
In 2011, Amazon and Apple were at odds over the percentage that Apples requires when users buy products through their iPhone or iPad apps. The Daily Beast Reported “This all started because booksellers found a clever way to sidestep Apple’s rules about selling stuff on its platform. If a developer wants to sell something via an iPad app—it’s called an “in-app purchase”—the transaction must go through Apple, which keeps 30 percent of the money and passes 70 percent on to the developer. Here’s what Amazon and the others do: when you order a book using, say, the Kindle app on the iPad, you’re taken to a Web browser and the transaction takes place there, not inside the Kindle app itself. That way the 30 percent doesn’t go to Apple.” Seeing this, Apple then blocked the link to Amazon’s website in all e-books from the Kindle App. This prevents you from loading amazon.comand purchasing a book with all the proceeds going directly to Amazon.
Back to the Smart Phone – The Rumors are:
· – Reports claim Amazon is working with Foxconn, the same manufacturer for Apple.
· – The smart phone is expected to be available summer/fall of this year.
· – The smart phone will run the Android-based operating system like the Kindle Fire Tablet.
· – It will have 3D mapping from UpNext Software company.
· – The smart phone is priced low from $100 to $200 – Amazon expects to make profits from digital content services not from the price of the phone.
With all the services that Amazon offers would you purchase this smart phone?
