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Amazon places its stakes for mobile expansion
Territories covered
Western Europe
Austria,
Belgium,
Denmark,
Finland,
France,
Germany,
Greece,
Ireland,
Italy,
Netherlands,
Norway,
Portugal,
Spain,
Sweden,
Switzerland,
UK,
Central and Eastern Europe
Czech Republic,
Hungary,
Poland,
Russia,
Slovakia,
Slovenia,
North America
Canada,
USA,
Asia-Pacific
China,
India,
Japan,
South Korea,
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Published:
01-Jul-09
E-commerce giant Amazon has made two seemingly small acquisitions that could have significance as to where the company is headed in the mobile space. In April 2009, Amazon acquired Lexcycle, developer of the Stanza e-book reader application for the iPhone. In June, it acquired SnapTell a provider of product search based on image recognition technology used on pictures taken with cameraphones.
In the US Amazon also sells the Kindle range of e-book readers that allow for wireless delivery of print content such as books and newspapers. The Kindle and Kindle DX (sporting a larger screen) rely on the Sprint network for their data connection.
Our take...
By improving its product search through the integration of image recognition, Amazon is aiming at an ever increased presence, potentially accompanying the buyer in brick-and-mortar stores for instant Amazon price comparison on the mobile handset. This innovation, as inevitable as is might be, will undoubtedly raise questions among retailers. By going beyond a pure hardware strategy for its Kindle, and acknowledging the potential of smartphones, Amazon confirms it is more targeted at becoming a major and ubiquitous digital content player than a consumer electronics brand.
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Analyst intelligence & notices
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