xixM0NEYxix

Amazon Buys Out Lexcycle to Defend Itself and the Kindle

So I'll make another similar comment about the Kindle as I have in the past (given this article is a rehash as well). Anyone who thinks Kindle is about creating an ipod isn't understanding the company, Amazon, or its business. IMHO, Amazon would be THRILLED if there were a thousand devices all carrying ebooks and that everyone in the world used an electronic device to view those ebooks, regardless of the maker of the device.

The Kindle is about leveraging the Amazon brand and relationships to create/extend a market far faster than the previous players were able to do so. The Kindle is a play for one of the greatest disintermediations out there. Eliminate publishers. Allow books to go from the author to the reader with fewer and less costly intermediaries. Amazon might get lucky and have an ipod-like phenomena on their hands, but it was NEVER about that. The big picture is doing to books what e*trade did to brokers. How many people still pay $125/trade for a broker to execute your order? I'd say a whole lot fewer than 15 years ago. I think 20 years from now we'll ask the same question about Simon & Schuster.

Amazon is a technology company, not a consumer products company. They are about itunes or the .mp3, not the ipod.

Buffalo Wild Wings: Costs Are Getting Out of Control

Wow - what a complete buffoon. This has to be one of the stupidest articles I've ever read. As the author said, I too would like to write a longer piece, but here is just one example of the idiocy (I counted at least 3 more as I read the article):

"The use of FIFO inventory accounting is usually a red flag." For a company that turns inventory over 100X per year, really FIFO is a red flag? The cost of their inventory is flushed through the system every 3-4 days!!! Red flag? Maybe, but apparently that is because financial analysis morons are now flying red flags.

I used to read seekingalpha regularly. Their lack of editorial standards evident in this article leads me to immediately ignore all future articles. What an idiot!

Amazon's Kindle 2: Worth All the Hype?

This always frustrates me... How can no one ever understand the point here? I cannot believe that Amazon's angle is to be a hardware vendor long term. They are a technology company. They bring buyers and sellers together. They leverage their network effect and brilliant understanding of their buyers to drive additional sales. They may always have some physical products to sell, but their bread and butter is technology, not books, not hot gadgets, or any other silly physical objects. They built the Kindle to create demand for e-books. Eventually, I bet they completely walk away from the hardware side. Maybe they get lucky and sell into a high margin fad / gadget du jour, but this isn't about the hardware.

Doesn't anyone see they can make a move to take over distribution of all books and cut out a HUGE intermediary between authors and readers? Isn't that the promise of the internet? How many of you are still willing to pay a broker, sitting in a cheap suit in a too expensive office, $110 to make a stock trade for you? I guarantee not as many as were willing to do that 15 years ago.

They are in this to create a new consumable media. One in which they will have several years of advantage over any competitor and develop huge moats with ENORMOUS margins due to the low cost distribution and their massive infrastructure and customer advantages.