- It was less about drones and more about the growing importance of algorithm-augmented retail.
- It is also a pretty broad swipe at all local retail, especially big box retailers such as Walmart, Kmart and Target. Those other guys are fighting to get their services web and mobile ready, while Amazon (s AMZN) is fine-tuning what matters most in digital commerce: supply chain and speed of delivery. Amazon is optimizing its supply chain to go from beyond delivery on the same day to within a few hours, with ultimate ambition of being less than an hour.
- It is thumbing Google (s GOOG) and eBay (s EBAY) in the face, saying go ahead experiment all you want with same day delivery. Retail is Amazon’s core business and it is doing whatever it takes to get even more efficient at it.
- I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts using an Uber-like service to start implementing a version of this pretty quickly. Even WalMart is experimenting with crowdsourcing delivery of packages and it makes most logical sense.
- It is a good way to push UPS, FedEx and USPS to come up with new delivery models befitting this new changed retail and consumption landscape.
what happens when your neighbor sends you something bad via drone, mind boggles
I think so long as every drone made is programmed to not kill humans as we evolve with integrated AI in the hardware, we should be fine. The last thing we need are more drone weapons flying around killing more innocent people in the hands of the unevolved but mechanically inclined.
As for the public acceptance, best bet is Domino Drone Delivery. That would be the way to get the public on board naturally and wide spread. As common as Amazon is to many, to most of my neighbors, Amazon still references a jungle. I agree with the comments re well calculated timing for the holidays. And, as well as I see some tricks from Donald Rumsfeld’s bag (priming). Clever.
In some article on CNBC, they were referring Bezos to Steve Jobs. I see the vision coming in Bezos. These kind of innovative thoughts move the world ahead… This news did catch everybody in surprise.
Hey Chilagani
http://gigaom.com/2008/10/12/bill-steve-jeff-bezos/
Enjoy 🙂
awesome, insightful blog. Thanks for the info!
Bezos delivers so well, that the delivery behemoth UPS couldn’t deliver on Christmas. If the drone delivery happens… I am pretty sure the skies will be way too creepy for me to stay in the city.