12/02/13 12:41
The big news this morning was Amazon unveiling an ambitious
drone delivery program, dubbed Amazon Prime Air.
Make no mistake, the tech is way out of left field, and according to Jeff Bezos himself, at least “4-5 years away.”
I'm doubtful if this will even work at scale (just three reasons: Weather, trees, and power lines). However, that they would even bring this up is important in a few ways:
Every big tech company has a tendency to put its stake on the future. This is Amazon's version. It's an announcement that Amazon is now sitting at the big-boy’s table. Most people may not realize it, but Amazon now employs
more people than Microsoft, and are as much a technology company as they are in retail.
Mindshare helps a company in so many ways, from attracting top talent, to helping with lobbying and sales. It's also no accident that this event was scheduled right at the peak shopping season.
The difference in Amazon's approach from their competitors is that they are much more focused. It's easy to see how something even as crazy as drone delivery is well aligned with their strategy, and how it could help their business directly. By comparison, efforts like Google’s Glass or their self-driving cars seem to be outside any near-term business reality.
Jeff Bezos is obsessed about reducing delivery times to close to nothing. It would utterly disrupt all retail, in Amazon's favor. The drones are a great way to articulate this goal, and fire up people's imaginations within Amazon and beyond.
Imagine this: You could one day order 6 pairs of shoes, try them all at home in 30 minutes, and return the 5 you don't want. Bye-bye strip malls.
He is certainly far better at it than any of his contemporaries. It's no mean feat to be the CEO who introduces key new products in person. The drone unveil is an indication of how Amazon is continuing to sharpen their media-shaping abilities, building up their own reality-distortion-field.
Drones aside, you can be sure that we'll be hearing a lot more from Amazon on a regular basis.
Related: Business.