amazon: this is the catalog
The innovation game will be played concerning the contents and the ecosystems to supply them, and from this point of view, Amazon is in an excellent position. Apple has had great success in creating devices of excellent workmanship, cult objects like the iPad. But going back to the tablet, the Kindle Fire is already a huge success, to the extent that Apple was forced to cut down on the production of iPads in the month of November
Perhaps Amazon's brand-new Italian Marketplace will be able to have a certain specificity – i.e., the possibility for SMEs to sell their products by not only exploiting the infrastructure of e-commerce, but also the logistics – since it seems to fit into the productive fabric very well and is scarcely exposed to the commercial potential of the typical network in Italy in recent years. Is it a service that will pay particular attention to the Italian market? In this case there seems, in fact, to be an all-Italian specificity in which Amazon can and will play an important role, especially when you consider the cost/performance that Amazon is able to offer third-party companies. This is a reduction in costs that is quite miraculous and is certainly without precedent in the Italian market. One fact that often goes unnoticed but which has been made public, is that right now, 37% of the total business activities on Amazon occur through the Marketplace and involve third party vendors. Do you think Amazon has been underestimated in its ability to innovate, in comparison to other big players like Apple or Google? I wouldn't say so. If we consider a simple indicator such as the trend of its stock, you have the perception of a high regard for Amazon. If we want to make more
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general considerations, the innovation game will be played concerning the contents and the eco-systems to supply them, and from this point of view, Amazon is in an excellent position. Apple has had great success in creating devices of excellent workmanship, cult objects like the iPad. But going back to the tablet, the Kindle Fire that was launched last November 15th is already a huge success, to the extent that Apple was forced to cut down on the production of iPads in the month of November. The fact is that now anyone can produce tablets and that is why the game has shifted entirely to their contents. And, for a long time now, Amazon has accumulated many, high quality contents. In this sense, the realistic ambition of Amazon is to become the catalog authority par excellence, making a complete inventory in the coming years of everything that is produced. In practice, thanks to Amazon's immense catalog, it will be possible to identify all kinds of objects, get information about them and immediately arrange to make a purchase. The Price Check app – giving you the chance to buy products online, whose barcode is identified in real shops – is just the first and most recent example of this future – distant, but not very. The vision is surely this: Amazon will become the most exhaustive catalog of most of the products that surround us. 057