Amazon

[Slamz]

No surprise to me, really. I was surprised at how the press mangled the original Kindle. If I had more time I'd try to dig up some of those articles for a compare-and-contrast. What it basically made me realize is that a lot of the press consists of Apple fans and does not necessarily represent the masses. If Grieve worked for the New York Times, we'd be reading about how the Kindle Fire is the devil and is "just an awful lot of rubbish" relative to the iPad.

(Biased press, I know, shocker!)

Disclaimer being that I haven't seen the new Fire so maybe the ads on startup really are highly aggravating. But I'd take any news story about anything that competes with Apple with a grain of salt.

[Grieve]

Actually most of the tech sites (outside of Apple blogs) don't like Apple at all, and their people who post on the forums hate Apple with a vengeance (worse than you guys - no really).

[Grieve]

Looks like the Microsoft surface RT (the ARM version that can't run existing Windows apps) will start at $499 (or $599 with the keyboard), and go up to $699. That is a huge fail, as far as I'm concerned. With Windows 8 also getting roundly trashed, I'm thinking of shorting Microsoft here.

[Vanraw]

yea I agree, that is disappointing when you consider they reported they were going to sell it at a loss ie Xbox model. Now if it ran all the microsoft apps native, it would be a good lap top option. But that's not what it is.

Not sure why they think in this 2 OS domination environment introducing a 3rd option more expensive then one of the competitors is going to be a success. I can only image that the HW vendors finaly got to them. Sad really. Unless it knocks peoples socks off, it will be a fail. Microslop strikes again.

[Grieve]

Really it's more expensive than the iPad as well as Android tablets - you can get an iPad 2 for $399. And rumors are that the iPad mini will start at $249. The Microsoft tablet will have a lot better specs, but will the public choose the brand they know with hundreds of thousands of apps at a cheaper price, or one with better specs on paper but no apps? I'm going to say the former.

So it's a two horse race this Christmas - iPad vs Android (Kindle and Nexus).

[Vanraw]

comparing last years model to justify price??? Man you have to try some different koolaid

[Grieve]

Well, last year's iPad is obviously still way ahead of this year's anything else.

Actually kill that smiley - I do totally believe that.

[Slamz]

Amazon rumored to be making a streaming box similar to Apple TV:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-24...video.html

I have been thinking of getting a Roku but maybe I'll wait for this. I'm a little baffled at why Amazon wants this unless, as the article suggests, it's to have a set-top box where their own stuff is front and center.

I have to say I do like the Kindle Fire interface though. It's way less customizable than a real tablet but its focus on books and movies is convenient since that's what I bought it for. Maybe the Amazon streaming box will have a good interface as well. Although really I hope it's good for Netflix because I watch way more Netflix than Amazon. I actually kind of hope that Amazon doesn't try to squeeze Netflix any because the ability to browse for things to watch on Amazon is a joke compared to Netflix.

[Grieve]

Well other streaming boxes range from $40 to $99. So given Amazon's "sell it at cost or a loss", I wonder if they will give these away FREE with a prime membership, or at least for some ridiculous nominal amount like $20. More importantly, it will give them control. There are Amazon apps on iDevices and Android, but only the Kindle Fire gives them complete control, and is able to push Amazon stuff at you constantly.

Now that they have a taste of self-made hardware, maybe they are even planning to make their own integrated TV eventually (beat Apple to the iTV game).

[Grieve]

Amazon missed by a mile, down $30 (7.49%) after hours.

However, in true Amazon fashion I won't be surprised to see this reverse to 10% up by the end of tomorrow.

Google missed too (on EPS), but has already recovered from its early drop. These guys can really do no wrong in wall street's eyes...

[Jakensama]

Selling motorola was probably a benefit for Google's stock. Was widely considered a millstone on their neck, and they just did hammer out a new deal with Samsung to increase their apps on their products and share some patents.

[Grieve]

Yes, Moto lost another $384m this quarter - I'm sure they will be relieved not to have them crapping all over Google's results any more. Google has pretty much ripped them to shreds anyway - they cut Moto's employees from 20,000 to 3,800 since the original acquisition.

[Jakensama]

They didn't want the employees, just the patents.

The Moto X was actually a pretty good phone, especially once prices were cut.

[Grieve]

It does go to show how much Samsung have bought their way to success. Moto, LG, and HTC all had very well reviewed phones this year, often better reviewed than the S4, but none of them could make any headway against the marketing juggernaut. Even with the financial might of Google behind the Moto X (I seem to remember they allocated half a billion on marketing), they still could barely sell any.

Maybe they weren't paying enough students to trash the opposition.

[Jakensama]

Suckers, apple fanatics do that for their masters without the necessity of a paycheck.

[Slamz]

Been waiting on this drawdown for a while. I was hoping it would have been a lot more. I think Amazon is seen as one of those "safe bet companies that COULD skyrocket". Amazon's revenue is $74 billion. Walmart's is $470 billion. So in sales of goods alone there's tons of room for Amazon to grow.

But Amazon always looks really ugly on the P/E ratio.

So far they've dropped about 11%, which is a little tempting. If they'd dropped 50% I'd throw everything I had at them.

[Jakensama]

The predicted large price hike in Amazon prime is interesting.. wonder how that will affect it.

[strife]

The predicted large price hike in Amazon prime is interesting.. wonder how that will affect it.

Ya this could be bad for them. A lot of people (myself included) may not want to spend 120 on prime and prime is one of the main reasons I use amazon. I can usually find the same thing other places for cheaper before shipping.

[strife]

http://www.statesman.com/news/ap/top-new...ear/nfB9x/

Well looks like Amazon is indeed raising the price, by $20 to $99.

I just re-upped a month ago so I have a year to decide if it's worth an extra $20... I don't really use any of the streaming stuff and we basically only use it for the shipping.

[Grieve]

We'll stay - still a bargain for the free 2day shipping alone.

I'm planning to buy AMZN too, this should be good for their bottom line.

[Zirak]

Yeah, got my notification on that but I also just re-subbed so don't have to worry about it until Jan of next year. I don't order a whole lot of stuff and most of the streaming I have done to date from Amazon has been of stuff not offered freely via Prime so I have not made my mind up yet but, I have a year to decide.

[Jakensama]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/amazon-cu...d=22882043

I guess scamming customers alone wasn't enough!

[Slamz]

Not sure I get that. To be what the story seems to be suggesting, you should be able to see this:
Log in on a fake, new account with no Prime. See a $50 item (probably with free "super saver" shipping).
Log in on your Prime account. See the same item, now listed at $55 (with "free" Prime shipping).


I don't think that's happening, although I would be up in arms were that indeed the case.

What you DO see is almost the opposite of what she seems to be saying:

Amazon (Prime or not) will have an item for $49.99.
A 3rd party vendor that wants to be listed on top will sell theirs for $44.98 + $5 shipping -- 1 cent less than the Amazon price.
Another vendor will see this and list theirs for $49.97 with "free shipping". Not prime. Just no separate shipping charge -- 1 cent less than the previous vendor.

The price you see will be whoever is lowest after item cost + shipping cost. (The vendor selling for $20 base + $30 shipping would still be last on the list.)


But Prime is irrelevant. If you're a 3rd party seller, you would need to look at the item price and set your price+shipping to something less than that if you want to beat Amazon's price and get your inventory moving.

[Jakensama]

I guess,the crux of the lawsuit is "Burke claims Amazon recommends to its prime vendors that they raise the price of each item by an amount equal to normal shipping charges, which results in higher referral fees per item paid to Amazon by vendors."

Their complaint is that Amazon claims you get free shipping and then encourages third party vendors to include shipping costs in their total price to increase the money Amazon gets to defray the cost of "free shipping", meaning you don't really save much.

No clue if theres any merit to the lawsuit or how much of their shit is third party or not, just had noticed it a day before the price hike.

[strife]

When I first read this, the first thing I did was look at the date to see if it was released on 4/1... Nope, 4/4...

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/amazon-dash/

Amazon announced a new stand-alone gadget today called the Dash. It’s basically a remote control for buying groceries. The small, handheld gadget itself is free, but the catch is you can only use it to order food and other goods from Amazon Fresh, the company’s same-to-next-day delivery service.

Dash automates the task of creating a shopping list. It looks like a little wand, and you can speak into it, or use it to scan a barcode. Dash then adds those items to your Amazon Fresh account. When you’re ready, all the items you’ve added are there waiting for you to schedule a delivery. You have to be an Amazon Prime Fresh customer to get one (Prime Fresh costs $300 per year, and is only available in a few cities) and, for now at least, you’ll also need an invitation code from Amazon.