Tag: Amazon

Buzzkill: Beer Delivery Drones Grounded by FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration has gone full buzzkill mode and stopped a small Wisconsin brewery from delivering beer by drone.

Lakemaid Beer recently thought up a truly badass way to deliver their new Frosty Winger Lager to ice fisherman – small drones. That’s right – Lakemaid started flying 12 packs to local anglers. But what seemed an efficient, worthy, and ultimately harmless endeavor was recently shut down by the FAA.

“We were a little surprised at the FAA interest in this since we thought we were operating under the 400-foot limit,” Lakemaid’s Jack Supple told NPR.

The administration apparently sent Supple 74 pages of code, stating that he’d violated a handful of them.

“I’m on the FAA blacklist for now,” he said. “They’re not too happy with me.”

We prefer our Lakemaid to be delivered in a more efficient manner than most. https://t.co/fB6P73kS2Z

— Lakemaid Beer (@lakemaidbeer) January 21, 2014

Last week, Lakemaid’s beer drone delivery video hit YouTube and quickly went viral, gaining nearly 100,000 views in just 7 days.

Through their novel drone delivery program and the subsequent governmental snafu, Lakemaid has garnered some new supporters – most notably the ones who have petitioned the White House to “issue an Airworthiness Certificate for Beer Drones.” They lovingly call them “BUAVs.”

The FAA has recently revoked authorization for a struggling small business to deliver its product via Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. This innovative product-to-market technique allowed a small business to grow its brand and take advantage of a government-supported initiative to embrace UAV technology. The FAA has no standing to restrict the delivery of products by small businesses and choke economic growth.

I won’t argue with them.

The concept of drone delivery has been in the news a lot lately – ever since Amazon unveiled a short video showing their new test product in action. Through Amazon’s drone delivery program, Amazon Prime Air, the company says they can deliver packages weighing up to 5 pounds anywhere in a 10-mile radius of fulfillment centers. Jeff Bezos says that this means 86% of Amazon’s daily deliveries are within the range of these drones.

And it’s not just Amazon that’s thinking about employing drones to do delivery work – other carriers like UPS as well as various pizza chains are also interested in the technology.

Despite the buzzkill, I’m sure that the folks at Lakemaid are thrilled about the press. Good on you, Lakemaid – we hope your magical beer copters will once again take flight. People are thirsty.

Image via YouTube

January 31, 2014
Amazon Prime May Get More Expensive – $100+ Possible

Would you be willing to pay more than $100 for an Amazon Prime membership?

You may have to ask yourself that question pretty soon, as the online retail giant has just hinted that they are at least considering raising the price of the popular service. Citing a rise in transportation costs and increased usage, Amazon said that they might raise the price 20 to 40 dollars for a year’s subscription.

From Amazon’s earnings call:

We launched Prime in the U.S. nine years ago with free, unlimited two-day shipping on one main items in an annual membership priced at $79. Today, Prime Selection is growing to over 90 million items.

Even as fuel and transportation costs have increased, the $79 price has remained the same. We know the customers love Prime as the usage of the shipping benefit has increased dramatically since launch. On a per customer basis, Prime members are ordering more items across more categories with free two-day shipping than ever before.

With the increased cost of fuel, transportation, as well as the increased usage among Prime members, we’re considering increasing the price of Prime between $20 to $40 in the U.S.

Since a current Amazon Prime membership sits at $79, this means that we’re talking about a possible range of $99 to $119 per year if Amazon decides to go that route.

This announcement comes 3 months after Amazon upped the free shipping threshold (for non-Prime members) to $35. Free shipping used to kick in at a $25 order.

I don’t know, guys – what do you think? For people that constantly make use of the fast shipping (multiple items ordered per month), the price hike will probably be justifiable. For the casual Amazon Prime subscriber? The decision to stay on or hop off the boat will be a bit trickier.

Image via Stephen Woods, Flickr Creative Commons

January 31, 2014
Amazon Revenue Up 20 Percent To $25.59 Billion In Q4

We all knew that Amazon had a great holiday season. The online retailer put out multiple press releases before and after Christmas patting itself on the back. Now that its Q4 results are, we can finally see that Amazon did indeed one have heck of a quarter.

Amazon announced this afternoon that fourth quarter sales were up 20 percent to $25.29 billion in the three months ending on December 31. It notes that sales would have actually been up 22 percent if it weren’t for the $258 million it lost in foreign exchange rates.

In operating income, Amazon saw an increase of 26 percent to $510 million. Net income was also up to $239 million which is a significant increase compared to its net income of $97 million in Q4 2012.

“It’s a good time to be an Amazon customer. You can now read your Kindle gate-to-gate, get instant on-device tech support via our revolutionary Mayday button, and have packages delivered to your door even on Sundays,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “In just the last weeks, Forrester, YouGov, and ForeSee have all ranked Amazon #1 – and we believe we’re just scratching the surface of what world-class customer service can be.”

As for the full year, Amazon repots that net sales increased 22 percent to $74.45 billion. If it weren’t for those pesky exchange rates taking $1.28 billion out of its coffers, Amazon’s net sales for the year would have actually grown by 24 percent.

In full year operating income, Amazon saw an increase of 10 percent to $745 milllion. Full year net income was $274 million – another significant increase compared to last year’s net loss of $39 million.

Despite its positive earnings results, it didn’t quite meet expectations. Amazon’s share price is down 37 points in after hours trading.

Image via Amazon

January 30, 2014
Amazon Reportedly Has Kindle Checkout System, P2P Payments Offering On The Way

Late last year, Amazon acquired some technology and engineers from PoS solutions company Gopago.

This was reportedly a catalyst for what will soon become a new Kindle-based checkout system for physical retailers as well as a PayPal-like P2P payments service.

The Wall Street Journal cites multiple people briefed on the company’s plans who say Amazon will offer brick-and-mortars a Kindle tablet-based checkout system as early as this summer, and that there may be multiple plans with one including the tablets and credit card readers, and another including website development and data analysis services.

TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon also has a P2P payments solution in mind, which would enable people to pay each other without having to use banks or PayPal-like services as middlemen. The report points to an Amazon job ad for a Senior Technical Program Manager to build a P2P payment product.

Amazon has offered payments solutions in some capacity for years, but in recent months has been getting more aggressive in the space. In October, the company launched its “Login And Pay With Amazon” service to ecommerce sites.

Amazon Payments VP Tom Taylor said at the time that Amazon had over 215 million active customer accounts, so that’s a pretty substantial base for any account-connected service to start off with.

Image via Amazon

January 30, 2014
Amazon Adds More CBS/Showtime Shows with Expanded Licensing Agreement

Amazon and CBS have just renewed and expanded upon an existing content licensing deal that will see Amazon Prime Instant Video keep much of their current CBS/Showtime content and also add a few new titles.

New titles now hitting Amazon Prime Instant Video include Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, Penn & Teller, and Vegas.

“We are very pleased to continue expanding our partnership with Amazon,” said Scott Koondel, Chief Corporate Licensing Offer for CBS Corporation. “CBS content is clearly a great match with Prime Instant Video’s growing user base, including The Good Wife being the service’s #1 show this past fourth quarter, as well as strong viewership of Under The Dome over the summer. We look forward to Under The Dome Season 2 this summer, along with Extant, and all that we will continue to do to provide great programming to our mutual customers.”

Earlier this month, Amazon announced that their Prime Instant Video service would be the exclusive streaming home for the upcoming CBS series, Extant, starring Hale Berry.

The show, a “mystery thriller about a female astronaut trying to reconnect with her family when she returns after a year in outer space,” will hit Amazon Prime just 4 days after it airs on CBS. This is the same deal that Amazon has with another CBS summer hit, Under The Dome.

Amazon is not only adding more outside content to their streaming platform, but they are pushing more original pilots as well. This includes a new series called Hand of God, starring Ron Perlman, a seres based on sci-fi heroine Barbarella, and a dramatic series from The X-Files‘ Chris Carter.

Image via Penn & Teller: Bullshit, Facebook

January 29, 2014
‘Hand of God’ Pilot Finds Home at Amazon

Amazon Studios is on a roll, beefing up their upcoming original series lineup with some impressive-sounding new shows. It’s not that surprising – Amazon’s original content wing has to move fast to catch up/keep pace with the Netflix juggernaut.

Deadline reports the newest Amazon Studios project is called Hand of God, an “edgy” drama starring Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy‘s Ron Perlman and directed by World War Z‘s Marc Forster.

Here’s the show’s synopsis, per Deadline:

Hand Of God centers on the powerful Judge Harris Pernell (Perlman), a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side who has a religious awakening and starts having visions and hearing voices through his ventilator-bound son that could be God speaking to him.

If anyone can convincingly play hard-living and law-bending, it’s Perlman.

Apparently, filming is slated to kick off in March.

Amazon Studios waded into the water with original comedies, and are now shifting focus to drama. The X-Files‘ Chris Carter has a new show coming out on Amazon (The After), and Amazon Studios recently signed on for a new series based on sci-fi heroine Barbarella.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

January 29, 2014
Hannibal Season 1 Now Streaming on Amazon Prime

Just in time for fans to play catch up before the big season 2 premiere, NBC’s hit show Hannibal has just landed on Amazon Prime Instant Video and it free to stream for subscribers.

All 13 episodes of season 1 are now available, and will run non-Prime members $2.99 a piece.

“Today, Amazon.com added the hit NBC series Hannibal to its Prime Instant Video content library giving users a chance to catch up on season 1 of the drama before the premiere of season 2 on January 28th. Hannibal is based on characters from the book “Red Dragon” and follows the story of the young Hannibal Lecter, a psychiatrist and criminal profiler. The series comes from the mind of Bryan Fuller, who’s behind such imaginative series as Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me,” says Amazon.

The highly-stylized drama has received mostly favorable reviews and has been a success for NBC. The show stars Hugh Dancy, Caroline Dhavernas, Laurence Fishburne, and Mades Mikkelsen in the title role.

Post by Hannibal.

Season 2 premieres on Friday, February 28th at 10pm EST. That gives you an entire month to catch up on season 1 – so get to it.

Image via Hannibal, NBC – Facebook

January 28, 2014
HTML5 Devs Can Now Sell Their Apps On The Amazon Appstore

HTML5 is the future, or so says open Web proponents. Everything you can do in native code on Android or iOS, they claim you can do in HTML5. While that may be true, you couldn’t make money with a HTML5 app on the Amazon Appstore until today.

Amazon announced this morning that HTML5 app developers can now resubmit their Web apps to the Amazon Appstore today and charge for it. Previously, all Web apps were required to be free before being allowed on the Appstore. There’s no reason stated behind the policy change, but it’s most likely due to Amazon seeing some success with Web apps on its Appstore.

So, how does this all work? If you’re new to the Amazon Appstore, you simply need to name a price on the “Availability & Pricing” tab under their Developer Account. After doing so, just hit publish. For those who already have a published HTML5 app on the Amazon Appstore, you need to name a price on the “Availability & Pricing” tab. After doing so, your app will now have a price attached to it on the Amazon Appstore.

Amazon also announced this morning that HTML5 apps are now eligible for the Free App of the Day promotion. It’s been shown in the past that being part of the Free App of the Day promotion helps increase sales of your app over time so HTML5 app developers looking for extra sales will want to let Amazon know they’re interested.

If this news has you wanting to start building HTML5 apps for the Amazon Appstore, you’ll want to start your journey here.

Image via Amazon Developer Console

January 28, 2014
Amazon Set To Release Game Console In 2014 [Report]

In August of last year, we got word that Amazon was going to enter the fairly new Android game console market. The device would help the company get a better foothold in the living room by offering a device that played games, movies and music. We haven’t heard much about it since then, but a recent report indicates that the project is still alive.

VG24/7 reports that Amazon and its subsidiary – Lab 126 – are still hard at work on the rumored Android game console. According to VG24/7’s sources, the console is being built to compete directly with the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft as well as consoles from Ouya and MadCatz.

So, what will Amazon’s console look like? It’s said that it currently looks like a PSone with sharp edges, but that design will surely change before launch. Amazon doesn’t want to be caught with a hardware design that seems old fashioned compared to its competitors and will likely come up with something similar to its Kindle design.

As for its specs, all we know is that it will likely use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs and cost less than $300. If Amazon uses a Snapdragon 800 or the new 805, we could have a pretty powerful games console on our hands. Of course, the quality of the games would still be dependent on the developers themselves.

Speaking of which, Amazon has its own game development studio as well as an extensive set of developer tools for Android game developers. If Amazon was smart, it would combine the two to help bring exclusive games to its device that really sell the hardware. The competition seems content to just have tablet games on their consoles so Amazon has a chance to do something special here, but it’s really up to how open Amazon wants to be. If it lets anybody publish games on the device, we might end up with another Ouya.

That being said, Amazon still has a while to get this right. While there’s no specific mention of a release date, the console will likely not see a release before summer.

Image via imgur

January 28, 2014
Barbarella TV Series Finds Home at Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios has just signed on for a new series based on sci-fi heroine Barbarella, reports Deadline.

Barbarella got her start as the title character in an early 60s French comic from author Jean-Claude Forest. In 1968, she hit the silver screen in a film adaptation starring Jane Fonda. Although fairly unpopular at the time if its release, Barbarella was rereleased 9 years later and has since become a sort of cult classic. Film remakes have been discussed over the years, but all of them ultimately fell through.

Now, writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade – plus producer Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive) – are at the helm.

The Gaumont International Television project has been in the works for over a year.

This will be an interesting series for Amazon Studios – especially considering its cult status and prominence in pop culture. Amazon Studios recently released their first two original series, Alpha House and Betas, the former becoming the most-watched show on all of Amazon in its debut weekend.

While Amazon Studios’ initial original content forays are comedies, the studio recently took a turn toward original dramas when they ordered a pilot from X-Files creator Chris Carter.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

January 21, 2014
Amazon Patents Method For “Anticipatory” Shipping

Late last year Amazon wowed consumers with the promise of same-day delivery using drones. The project is still years off and there are many questions for Amazon to answer before drone delivery could ever become real. In the meantime Amazon has a new idea that, while much less glamorous than drones, could have the potential to affect Amazon’s distribution more than flying packages.

A new Amazon patent has surfaced showing that the world’s largest internet retailer now wants to ship packages before they are ordered. The patent would anticipate what products a consumer may order and then ship it toward their nearest Amazon distribution center. The method would then confirm the final address of the order during the shipping process, should the customer actually order the product.

The “anticipatory package shipping” method would take many factors into account when predicting what products a consumer may buy. As stated in the patent, Amazon would look at what websites consumers are viewing and how long, link mouse hover times, shopping cart contents, and wish list activity when deciding what products to pre-ship. Customer engagement with marketing and salespeople would also be taken into account.

Amazon’s distribution network is highly efficient, but shipping concerns remain one of the only competitive weaknesses internet retailers have against more traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Next-day shipping prices are expensive and big-box retailers allow customers the sort of instant-gratification internet shopping does not. Pre-shipping packages could help reduce shipping times and put further pressure on stores such as Barnes & Noble and Best Buy.

via The Wall Street Journal

January 20, 2014
Veronica Mars Now Streaming on Amazon Prime

If you were planning a return to Neptune before the premiere of the new Veronica Mars movie, Amazon has just made your search a lot easier.

Amazon has just announced that Amazon Prime Instant Video is now the exclusive streaming home of the entire Veronica Mars series (64 episodes). The show, which starred Kristen Bell as a student moonlighting as a private investigator, ran on UPN and the CW from 2004 to 2007.

“The Veronica Mars series has been popular on DVD and Amazon Instant Video for years, so we know how much Amazon customers love this iconic television show,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition. “We are excited to become the exclusive subscription streaming home for Veronica Mars and to be able to offer the entire TV series to Prime members to enjoy at no additional charge. With the movie coming on March 14, both die-hard fans and new viewers can easily catch-up on this great show.”

As Beale says, this gives you a little over two months to catch up on the series before the new Veronica Mars movie hits theaters.

The Veronica Mars movie traveled an interesting path from conception to production. Creator Rob Thomas went the Kickstarter route to fund the project and wound up with one of the most-successful crowdsourcing projects in recent memory. Thomas started out with a $2 million goal and to this point has raised over $5.7 million for the film. The Veronica Mars kickstarter was the fastest project to hit both $1 million and $2 million in funding, and has the most project backers in the history of Kickstarter.

On Wednesday, Amazon announced that they had secured the exclusive streaming rights to CBS’s new series Extant, starring Halle Berry, which is set to debut in June.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

January 9, 2014
Amazon Launches New Developer Portal

Since its launch, developers have had to submit apps to the Amazon Appstore through a developer portal that has remained largely unchanged over the years. Change is good, however, and Amazon is approaching its developer portal with a change-centric mindset going into 2014.

Amazon revealed this morning that it has completely redesigned its developer portal to make it easier for developers to submit apps, find documentation and more. The retailer says that its new developer portal has been designed with the following in mind:
Get Started: If you have an Android app, you can simply drop your APK in our updated testing widget to get Appstore compatibility test results in just seconds. Once your app is ready, you can create a free developer account and submit it using the Developer Console.
Access the Latest Amazon APIs: Download the free Amazon Mobile App SDK for access to APIs and services that can enhance your apps and games, help you monetize them, and engage your audience across Android and iOS platforms.
Find the Content that Matters: The new site includes a wide variety of support resources to help you through the development process including documentation, development tools, marketing tips, promotional tools, videos, case studies, blog posts and one of my favorites, a schedule of upcoming training events.

Of all the changes, Amazon has a number of specific changes that developers should be aware of. First off, the app submission form has been updated to make it easier for developers to find out if their Android .apk is compatible with the Appstore. Just drag and drop the .apk into the submission portal and it will tell you right away if it’s compatible.

To make it easier on developers, Amazon has created a page that has all the Appstore APIs, including in-app purchasing, mobile ads, GameCircle and more. Speaking of GameCircle, there is also now a dedicated page for game developers with links to all the tools needed to make a great game for the Amazon Appstore.

There’s a lot more for developers to find on the new developer portal, including resources for mobile and PC developers. You can find out more here.

Check out the video below to see some of the changes:

Image via Amazon App Distribution and Services Portal/YouTube

January 9, 2014

2013 Was A Huge Year For Amazon Marketplace

Amazon announced on Thursday that 2013 was a record-setting year for Amazon Marketplace sellers, and that it now has over 2 million of them. Throughout the year, sellers sold over a billion units worldwide, worth tens of billions of dollars, the company says.

Marketplace sellers had a particularly good holiday season with over 13 million units ordered worldwide on Cyber Monday, up 50% year over year.

If you’ll recall, Amazon gave Marketplace sellers access to high-traffic holiday deal pages, which no doubt contributed significantly to the big year.

“Amazon gave us an opportunity to offer an incredible holiday deal on Cyber Monday and we hit it out of the park,” said Eli Silver Sakkal, president of Amazing Deals Online. “We experienced an unprecedented 5,000 percent sales growth spike on an item we listed with an attractive holiday deal price. I know it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true! We sold more than $1,000,000 in product in a single day. Being a Marketplace Seller on Amazon has allowed us to benefit from the technical infrastructure they’ve built up over the years while reaching millions of loyal customers worldwide for a modest cost to us. We have enjoyed an 80 percent increase in units sold on Amazon this holiday season without having to invest a penny in our own infrastructure. Amazon by far has been our most successful sales channel this holiday selling season.”

Amazon says Marketplace sellers have continued “rapid adoption” of Fulfillment by Amazon with the number of active sellers using it growing over 65% year over year.

Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace, said, “It has been an incredible year for Marketplace Sellers including popular brands and businesses of all sizes selling on Amazon. Our customers have told us they appreciate the hundreds of millions of products listed by Marketplace Sellers that range from all types of apparel to a vast selection of electronics items.”

“Our goal every day is to make selling on Amazon as easy as possible,” he added. “Fulfillment by Amazon is a wonderful service as it gives all Marketplace Sellers the option of warehousing their inventory in our fulfillment center network. It has been a game changer for sellers because their items become eligible for Prime benefits, which drives their sales and benefits consumers with additional Prime selection.”

Fulfillment By Amazon shipped more units in the Q4 than the total number of units combined in all of 2009 and 2010.

The number of businesses using Amazon Payments also grew by 50% year over year on Cyber Monday.

Image via Amazon Marketplace

Amazon Snags Halle Berry CBS Series ‘Extant’ for Quick Streaming

CBS bet big on the new series from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television, Extant, picking it up straight to series (13 episodes) back in August.

Now, Amazon is announcing that Amazon Prime Instant Video will be the exclusive streaming home for the series, which is slated to debut this summer.

All new episodes of Extant, which will premiere on CBS in June, will be available to stream by Amazon Prime customers 4 days after their original network airing.

If this model sounds familiar, that’s because Amazon struck the same deal with CBS for last year’s hit Under the Dome, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. It had plenty of success in the streaming realm – Amazon says that Under the Dome was “watched by more customers than any other TV season on Prime Instant Video in 2014.”

“Extant is a mystery thriller about a female astronaut trying to reconnect with her family when she returns after a year in outer space. Her experiences lead to events that ultimately will change the course of human history” – according to its official description. Berry will play that astronaut, Molly Watts.

“Extant is a very original concept with layers of humanity, mystery and surprise that reveal itself throughout the script,” said CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler when they announced the series last year. “Our partnership with Amblin for Under the Dome showed that viewers respond to high-quality event programming in the summer. We look forward to building on that with Extant and offering CBS audiences another high-concept, unique event for summer television.”

This will be Halle Berry’s first series regular role in about 25 years.

“We received very positive feedback from Prime members about this summer’s exclusive access to Under the Dome,” said Brad Beale, Director of Content Acquisition for Digital Video at Amazon. “Customers loved being able to watch the show just days after it aired as well as catching up on previous episodes. We are thrilled to offer Prime members this access for Extant, another exciting new show from CBS.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Amazon Sales Tax Now Reality For Over Half Of U.S. Population

Consumers in more states are about to find themselves paying sales tax when they shop online at Amazon. Online businesses in all states may one day be required to collect sales tax from everyone anyway, but Amazon currently finds itself on both sides of the “to tax or not to tax” argument as it resists tax requirements in some states while supporting legislation that would make tax collection ubiquitous throughout the nation.

Should all online businesses be required to collect sales tax from all consumers regardless of location? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Amazon is now collecting sales tax in three new states: Indiana, Nevada and Tennessee. Now it is doing so for a total of nineteen states, which according to the Wall Street Journal, account for over half of the country’s population.

Amazon has gone out of its way to avoid this in various states. A month ago, the company was denied a chance to fight New York’s requirement for Amazon to collect sales tax from purchases made in the state. The company had sought to battle this in the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court refused to hear the case, saying that the state’s efforts are constitutional.

This followed a New York law, which took effect in 2008, which meant that Amazon had to collect taxes in the state because it sold ads through a New York-based firm.

The company has also cut ties with affiliates in other states like Minnesota and Missouri to avoid collecting tax.

In 2016, Amazon is expected to begin collecting sales tax in more states like South Carolina and Florida.

But by then, the Marketplace Fairness Act may have been passed anyway, meaning that all online retailers in the U.S. would have to collect tax from everybody regardless of whether or not they have a physical presence in a state. While you may not know it from the company’s resistance to these state taxes, Amazon is one of the biggest supporters of this bill, which passed in the Senate last year.

As our own Zach Walton explained in a recent article, it’s all about priorities for Amazon. “The Marketplace Fairness Act wouldn’t affect Amazon that much as it continues to build out more fulfillment centers in more states thus giving it a physical presence in more states. If the Marketplace Fairness Act isn’t passed, the retailer obviously doesn’t want to be stuck collecting sales taxes in states that it doesn’t have a presence in. That way Amazon can then barter with those states to collect sales tax in exchange for the state helping to build more fulfillment centers.”

And those are coming rapidly. In 2013 alone, the company announced new fulfillment centers for Connecticut, Wisconsin, California, Maryland, Florida and Texas.

As Walton noted, the situation in New York didn’t exactly cater to Amazon’s “play it safe” mentality.

Meanwhile, the Marketplace Fairness Act continues to sit in limbo as we head into the new year. House speaker John Boehner expressed his resistance to the bill last year, saying it would put “a big burden on some very small businesses,” as it would require them to comply with the sales tax codes of 50 different states. This has been a common point of conflict for those opposed to the legislation. Boehner said he would “probably not” vote to pass the bill.

Either way, it looks like Amazon shoppers in more and more states will be paying sales taxes as time goes on.

The latest states to adopt the Amazon sales tax are expected to generate $50 million in new revenue. Sales tax is 7% in Indiana and Tennessee and 6.85% in Nevada.

Should Amazon and other and other online businesses be required to collect sales tax in all states? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Amazon Sales Tax Laws Expand to Three More States

Consumers in Indiana, Nevada and Tennessee will no longer get a free pass on sales tax when shopping on Amazon.com. Starting today, residents in those states will join the 16 other states in the country that automatically pay tax on Amazon purchases. South Carolina is not far behind, consumers in the Palmetto State, will begin paying taxes on all purchases from the monster online retailer starting in 2016.

The three new state additions are expected to generate about $50 million a year in tax dollars. Amazon tried and failed to keep sales tax laws from expanding. Their argument has always been that since they are not a “brick and mortar” retailer, but instead an online presence, consumers who shop with them should not have to pay a state sales tax. In fact, that’s always been a huge advantage for Amazon. However, the company’s competitors brought their battle to court in an effort to try and keep up with the retail juggernaut.

This past December, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Amazon’s appeal regarding a New York court ruling that required the retailer to collect sales tax in the state. That ruling will most likely serve as a precedent for future rulings. In other words, if you live in one of the 30 states where you currently are not required to pay a sales tax on Amazon.com purchases, enjoy it while you can.

Amazon’s strategy has always been about offering price-advantages for their customers. Sales tax varies from state to state, residents in Indiana and Tennessee pay a 7% sales tax. Residents in Nevada pay a 6.85% sales tax. However, do not think for a single second that Amazon is not finding new ways to differentiate its product and keep consumers coming back. Want same day delivery? How about Sunday delivery? How about delivery via drone? It’s all in the works as the retail giant keeps finding advantages in every possible nook and cranny imaginable.

Images via Facebook, Facebook

Amazon Sold 36.8 Million Items on Cyber Monday

In less than two decades Amazon has managed not only to become the internet’s largest retailer, but also a major competitor to traditional retailers such as Walmart. The success of the website continues to grow each year, and this year’s holiday season looks to be the biggest ever for Amazon.com.

Amazon has now revealed a few choice statistics from its 2013 holiday sales. The most impressive might be that Amazon customers ordered more than 36.8 million items from the website on “Cyber Monday” (the online equivalent of Black Friday). That equates to around 426 items ordered from the site every second.

Amazon’s big Kindle Fire bet seems to be paying off as well. According to the company its Kindle Fire tablets were the most popular tablets sold on its website. IBM analytics last week found that over 19% of all online sales Christmas day came from tablets, and Amazon’s customers were even more likely to use mobile devices as more than half of their customers shopped using a mobile device this holiday season.

All of this is tied into Amazon’s subscription service, Amazon Prime. Where other tech companies have been trying to attach their hardware to recurring revenue streams, few have achieved success in the consumer market outside of video game console manufacturers. Through Prime, Amazon encourages customers to buy more with free shipping, as well as consumer more media through Amazon Instant Video and its Kindle Lending Library program.

According to Amazon, more than one million new Prime subscribers signed up during the third week of December. The company was forced to limit new Prime sign-ups at some points this holiday season to keep it running smoothly.

“Amazon Prime membership continues to grow, and we now have tens of millions of members worldwide,” said Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. They benefit from all-you-can-eat free two-day shipping on millions of eligible items and our members have a voracious appetite.”

A Lot Of People Became Amazon Prime Members During The Holidays

In late November, Amazon finally allowed its customers to gift Amazon Prime subscriptions to their friends and family members. Free two-day shipping for a year is the perfect gift for the frequent Amazon shopper, but it was hard to say if this new gifting option would actually lead to more subscribers.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course it did.

Amazon announced today that it set a new record for new Amazon Prime subscriptions in the third week of December by signing up more than 1 million new members. This new wave of Prime members also led to Amazon shipping out more packages than ever before on its peak shipping day. All of this and more led to Amazon having the best holiday shopping season on record.

“Amazon Prime membership continues to grow, and we now have tens of millions of members worldwide. They benefit from all-you-can-eat free two-day shipping on millions of eligible items and our members have a voracious appetite,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “We are extremely grateful to our customers around the world and wish everyone the very best for the coming year.”

Speaking of Amazon Prime, here are some fun facts regarding Amazon’s holiday shipping this year:

Beyonce Vs. Target and Amazon

The big music news of the week has been Beyonce dropping her album Beyonce without announcing it first. This is newsworthy for many reasons. For one, not creating buzz before you release new music is unheard of, as it increases the chances of the album not doing well. However, this is Beyonce and we all know better, which leads us to number two.

Of course the album is doing amazingly well, shattering iTunes records and claiming the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Charts. Featuring 15 songs and 17 videos, it’s pretty safe to say the singer’s fifth record is a success. Perhaps the biggest news of all, is that she has done it without the help of mega retailers Target and Amazon, who have refused to sell the record – the third reason why this event has been so popular in the news world.

Target and Amazon are waging a musical and financial war against the star for releasing her album on iTunes first, by refusing to sell the album – Amazon is selling the MP3 version, Target won’t sell either the CD or digital versions. By giving iTunes a one-week exclusive to sell the album, Beyonce has enabled them to sell 600,000 units at $15.99 each. That’s a whopping $9.5 million in just seven days.

Although $10 million is a lot of cash to the average person, it’s not much by Target and Amazon’s standards, which leads experts to believe there’s a method to their madness. This action sends a major message to other artists that if they give iTunes an advantage over them, Target and Amazon won’t sell their records.

So how did Beyonce react to the news? By visiting a suburban Boston Wal-Mart – the arch nemesis of both Target and Amazon. Not only did the songstress make an appearance – and give a message of her own to the retailers – but she made the holidays of shoppers that much better by handing out $50 gift cards to everyone in the store.

See more about Bey’s Walmart experience here:

All hail Queen B.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Nexus Tablet: In the News This Holiday Season

Google seems to be constantly making the news with its Nexus tablet.

The most recent rumblings involve the Nexus 10 2, the newest version of its 10-inch tablet. Rumor has it that the Nexus 10 2 may launch ahead of CES 2014.

CES is an annual international consumer electronics and technology trade show, the self-described “global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.” This year’s event takes place January 7-10 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But the technology world is abuzz with rumors that the Nexus 10 2 may actually hit the market after New Year’s Eve.

Earlier this month, Google made the news when it unveiled a white version of its 7-inch Nexus tablet:

Today we're introducing a new *white* Nexus 7; available on Google Play in the US, UK & JP: http://t.co/YiFOKws9ci pic.twitter.com/U2Xm1cX2X4

— Google Nexus (@googlenexus) December 10, 2013

Google is marketing the Nexus as a perfect holiday gift, putting the tablet up against what are possibly its two biggest competitors: Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX and Apple’s new iPad Mini with Retina display.

The verdict is out on which mini tablet tops the list.

Some sources put the iPad Mini with Retina display last while others refer to it as the gold standard of mini tablets.

Technology authority C-NET calls the iPad Mini with Retina Display “the best small tablet yet.”

It calls the Nexus 7, however, “the best tablet value on the market” and the “best Android tablet.”

Another industry authority is PC Magazine. In a comparison of the 10 best tablets, it gives the Nexus 7 an “Editor’s Choice” distinction.

Google has been ratcheting up attention for the Nexus 7 on its own social networking site, Google+. It recently ran a giveaway encouraging users to compose still photos including their Nexus tablet and post them using the hashtag #whatmatters:

Image via Wikimedia Commons