It was interesting to read in today’s New York Times their article ‘Amazon Accelerates Its Move to Digital’. It comments on Amazon’s digital push into music, TV, DVD, audio and of course books and reports on their early progress.
The most telling statement was right at the end and was that it took Amazon five to seven years to build its business to maturity and that they expect that digital will be similar. This focused approach should be an alarm bell to all those who are sitting on their hands saying that digital books will not happen or that the investment is too high to justify today. These same statements were rife in the mid to late 90’s when many said Amazon was not a sustainable business, would go bust and that there was little return just high cost on the Internet.
Although there are always exceptions, market domination and channel power rarely happens overnight or by accident. Entering a race late may save some cost but also often looses revenues and market share. Perhaps its time for those who are waiting or making noise and little investment to realise that its decision time.
