Amazon.com, founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos was once just a bookstore. It was an online bookstore for those who wanted to avoid the trip out to Barnes and Noble during the holiday season or those who were looking for that rare literary gem they just could not find anywhere else. But in just 15 years, Amazon.com has grown to be America's largest online retailer and the world's biggest bookstore. They sell everything from books, movies and music to gourmet food, toys, office supplies and everything else (literally, there's even a product category by this name.) And now, they're even creating and marketing their own products.
On February 9th, cnnmoney.com featured an article on Amazon's unveiling of their newest product, the Kindle 2. In 2007, they introduced the first edition of the Kindle, an electronic book reader just slightly larger than a pocket-sized paperback book. The gadget, to the suprise of many, has been widely popular amongst consumers, with even Oprah calling it her "new favorite thing in the world." Demand was high in 2008 for this $359 product, which remains the going price for the newest Kindle.
The new Kindle is said to be quicker, lighter, and thinner than the first, with a bigger vocabulary (250,000 word dictionary), and the ability to download books wirelessly from the web, for a standard price of just $9.99 per book, a real steal for many. The Kindle 2 also allows the user to pause their book on the Kindle 1 and easily pick up where they left off on the Kindle 2. It's also rumored that the 230,000 electronic book library would eventually be available on Google phones and iPhones.
The launch of this new product only strengthens my opinion of Amazon as an incredibly genius company. They know where their strong points are (selling books) and they know what the trends are (digital, digital, digital). They found a way to bridge the gap between where they were and where other markets were going and bring the two together. They created a high-dollar product to bring in revenue, but then offered books that were often priced way below market value, to keep customers happy. Jeff Bezos seems to be channeling Steve Jobs a bit with his innovation and brand positioning, and if he keeps it up we may very well see a huge line of Amazon electronics emerge over our lifetime.
These types of articles directly relate to us as CARS students because they show what it takes to succeed in the retail industry, especially in the most desolate of times. Even though Amazon was already doing well and has already dominated both the book industry and the online retail department in general, they haven't settled and let themselves get comfortable with being on top. They are continuing to progress, innovate, and improve themselves as a company, and that's something that we all can admire.
Source: http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/02/09/amazon-unveils-the-new-kindle/
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