> I'd put them right up there with Apple on the product innovation front.
Could you elaborate on that? I can think about only two potentially innovative products coming from Amazon.
1. Kindle. The business model is definitely innovative, but the device itself had a cold reception. The modern versions are much better, but still don't reach the Apple level of polish.
2. AWS. Extremely innovative, but targeted to a relatively small population. This is definitely not a mainstream product.
I intentionally skip the innovations in streamlining the shopping experience, because I don't feel it's relevant to the comparison to Apple.
Amazon's main strength is building platforms for other businesses , and innovating business models. their product innovations are just tools to build platforms.
You can see this from a list of their innovations:
1. amazon fulfillment services.
2. the affiliate marketing method.
3. 3rd party sellers arena, used book selling arena inside their own store.
4. the kindle - a digital platform for many authors and publishers. the physical kindle is not that hard, just look on how many e-readers are there.
5. aws - a good product, but also an innovative business model.
Could you elaborate on that? I can think about only two potentially innovative products coming from Amazon.
1. Kindle. The business model is definitely innovative, but the device itself had a cold reception. The modern versions are much better, but still don't reach the Apple level of polish.
2. AWS. Extremely innovative, but targeted to a relatively small population. This is definitely not a mainstream product.
I intentionally skip the innovations in streamlining the shopping experience, because I don't feel it's relevant to the comparison to Apple.