12Sided, The Blog

Lots of chatter about iPad as the Kindle killer. The chatter is bunk. Kindle has a specific target audience, a niche. That niche loves the Kindle. Niche is the new critical mass.

Look at some of the advantages Kindle has:

1. Battery Life. Kindle can last up to 7 days without a charge. Seriously.
2. Content delivery. Kindle has it included. No extra charges or higher price tag.
3. Readability. Do you want to read a backlit screen all day?
4. Opening an App Store that people will care about.

The iPad is a very slick device, but it will not be the only one to change the tablet game. Apple App Store developers will start to run into some of the issues that cross-platform mobile developers are dealing with. Namely screen size and incompatible devices. Apple has been very smart with their device hardware and software release cycles. This will become more difficult as different devices begin to proliferate. The iPad will face way more competition than the iPod. Repeating success is, in fact, harder than initial success. Other players and other platforms (HP, Asus, Dell, Everyone on Microsoft or Android) are ready this time. My take is that the biggest losers will be the publishers. Their pricing models will now be more fully exposed to the buying public. That new knowledge will suppress their margins.

On of the better reads on the “Kindle killer” iPad at TechFlash: 5 reasons why the iPad is not a Kindle killer

Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, does not work on Kindle, and does not read my blog.

Amazon AWS announced Spot Instances of EC2 a few weeks back. I have been very interested in this concept. Auction pricing should be natural for the cloud computing utility model. They will be selling spare capacity from moment to moment. The cloud is attractive since servers often site idle. Sharing that resource makes sense. “Spots” are an extension of the concept to keep AWS at full utilization. Win for AWS and customers. I look forward to seeing how this play out during 2010!

Great read on the Spot Market by Jonathan Boutelle, cofounder of Slideshare @ Gaming the Amazon Spot Market

More information on the AWS Blog: Amazon Web Services Blog

Another read on Amazon’s private brands. I would love to think that the WSJ got inspiration from my earlier post Amazon’s private brands. Plus I re-learned that Pinzon is the name of the Spanish explorer who discovered the Amazon River. In reality, the new products and accounting for “general merchandise” are getting mainstream attention.

WSJ: Amazon Is Selling Designs of Its Own

Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, but she steadfastly refuses to read my blog.

Just got an invite to a webinar co-hosted by Cast Iron Systems and Amazon AWS. I have been intrigued by Cast Iron’s integration offering for the enterprise for sometime. Their initial concept of an integration appliance has played well in the market and they now offer full cloud based services as well. Most enterprises are finding the real challenge of “going cloud” to be the integration points inside their firewall. The Cast Iron appliance does a real nice job of bridging that gap. Their Salesforce.com solution is rock solid. The next logical step is to bridge that gap to Salesforce.com partner and leading utility cloud player Amazon AWS. The webinar should be interesting and worth checking out.

You can register for the webinar here.

Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, but she steadfastly refuses to read my blog.

Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels of Separation blog is a must read for marketing, branding and social media. Check his What’s In Your Bag? post for some an interesting take on Amazon Widgets.

I took a turn creating my own widget about some of the coffee related products I have blogged about and a few that are essential. This is a very cool way to talk about the things you love and generate word of mouth.

Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, but she does not read my blog or drink coffee.

Amazon is introducing a new AWS service to extend to a virtual private cloud (VPC). Basically it offers the enterprise to extended an existing network via VPN to a logically isolated set of EC2 instances.

From my experience selling cloud-based services, this will play well with the enterprise. Security is critical for enterprises today, tomorrow and in the future. Cloud providers constantly have to get over the security hurdle — even AWS. VPC should be appealing to the enterprise since similar services are already established. Governments will also be interested.

Werner Vogel’s blog post: Seamlessly Extending the Data Center – Introducing Amazon Virtual Private Cloud

Coverage at TechCrunch: Amazon Eyes Big Enterprise Budgets With Virtual Private Cloud Service

This is interesting and borderline funny. Amazon has created its own URL shortener for products. See TechFlash Amazon creates its own URL shortener for products. Basically the idea is to make it easier to post product links to Twitter and other social media. It has some simple rules and looks to be pretty useful. However one of the more popular Amazon Twitter accounts, Amazondeals with over 15,000 followers is still using TinyURL.com. Seems like an opportunity for improvement for the Amazon GoldBox team.

Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, but she does not read my blog.

Because I cannot get enough of the Amazon/Zappos deal, check Read Write Web: Getting the Goods: The New Amazon/Zappos Supply Chain Story.

I touched on some of this via the customer experience lens in my post: Amazon buys Zappos.

More on the Amazon Zappos deal…specifically the robots.

Amazon’s Acquisition of Zappos Is “A Good Thing for Kiva,” Says Robot Company’s CEO.

Also check Forbes, “Bot-In-Time Delivery” for more about Kiva.

So the big news from yesterday is Amazon buying Zappos. Cash and stock and all that. Congrats to two of my favorite online retailers. The financials are one thing and will be debated. I believe that this will be a great deal for both companies. Also, the notion that Zappos is fun and Amazon is not is irrelevant. The real question is: Why did a Zappos deal happen when a purchase of Netflix was rumored?

First, a deal with Netflix has been speculated for many years. The overlaps are obvious. I am sure the smart people at Amazon have investigated Netflix and determined if the addition would be a fit. To be sure, there were some synergies a few years ago. Netflix had a solid customer base and fulfillment. The advent of digital video and applications like Amazon Unbox and iTunes have shown that the digital video is for real. Netflix is nice, but likely not a growth segment. Today, Amazon would have interest in the fulfillment but knows the Netflix customer base is likely to get smaller not bigger. Plus the fulfillment model is great for envelopes not for packages.

Second, Zappos is strong where Amazon’s brand struggles. Sure Amazon is trying to compete with Endless.com, but have you shopped for shoes from Amazon? Most of the product is third-party and non-Prime. Being addicted to Prime, I really have to want a product to pay for shipping in addition to the Prime membership. Zappos does do apparel and sunglasses, but these products are not truly “core” Zappos. A shoe print is on the delivery box. I have been very happy with Zappos purchases and the return policy rocks. The customer experience is key to both Zappos and Amazon. Zappos gets the great customer experience like Amazon does. Is Netflix known for great customer experience?

Third, Zappos likely realized that if Amazon turned both barrels to better compete with them, they would likely lose in the long run. The venture, Sequoia and others, likely pointed this out in gentle soothing tones. Netflix has been feeling the heat of iTunes and Unbox and digital video. They have made attempts to be in that game, but it is really not their core. Living in Seattle, the public library provides a great alternative to Netflix and I enjoy a benefit of my tax dollars.

Fourth, based on my customer experience alone, I would bet that Zappos has an impressive fulfillment model that interested Amazon — more than the Kiva robots (See earlier post). Amazon’s core is retail. Online retail requires fulfillment. Amazon wins because they are always improving fulfillment, thus customer experience. More products on Prime, better experience.

Questions:
• Will Zappos offer Prime shipping?
• Will Zappos UI improve? It could stand some improvement.
• Will Amazon ever “surprise” me with free upgraded shipping?
• Will those agencies that complained about Zappos (See earlier post) ever get any work from Amazon?

News Coverage of Amazon and Zappos:
TechCrunch: Amazon buys Zappos

TechFlash: Sequoia, Zappos and the secret to venture capital success

Thanks to Zappos for checking out 12Sided, The Blog. You have pushed my readership to over two. Disclosure: The wife is employed by Amazon, but she does not read my blog.