One particular bit points out just how far out of the conventional box Amazon operates:
Quote:
|
Another example is provided by the warehouses of Amazon itself, which long ago grew to such levels of complexity that they require algorithmic management. Objects placed within them conform not to any human taxonomy — books alphabetised by author here, music CDs in another corner, DVDs over there — but to a mathematical equation, a computation of frequency that ensures goods are stored as close as possible to multiple sites of use and packaging. As a result, only an augmented human can find stock in its millions of seemingly randomly distributed square feet; if the inventory software fails, mere people are adrift among millions of scattered flotsam.
|
A lot of Amazon haters seem in denial about Amazon's operational overhead levels and ability to turn cost centers into profit centers, thinking that if *they* can't survive at those prices, then "clearly" neither can Amazon. But it turns out that Amazon is simply too alien an operation for them to grasp (dynamic, constantly changing warehouse shelving?!) so they think of them as "martians", evil invaders.
The last paragraph suggests he himself isn't wholly comfortable with the Kindle operational model, mostly because he sees the Kindle ecosystem as a "substitute" for the internet itself (a bit of a reach there) instead of an ultra-accessible subset of the commercial side of the internet.
Quote:
|
If the Kindle restricts most of its users to content approved by Amazon — and it does — and if it walls up the reading experience and claims ownership over our highlights and bookmarks — and it does that too — is that forgivable in return for apparent access to all books, now, right now, forever? To what extent are we prepared to have our cultural experiences mediated or even controlled by technology? The answer, it increasingly appears, is quite a lot, and the Kindle, for better or worse, is the tool we have chosen to negotiate for us.
|
Here, like most of the anti-Amazon crowd, he vastly overstates the lock-in effect of walled gardens. Yes, the Kindle is a bookselling storefront first and foremost, an extension of the Amazon bookselling infrastructure; but for consumers it is not the *only* channel for "cultural experiences". There is more to culture than books, Kindle owners don't get all their culture through Amazon, and a lot of Kindle customers that don't even own a Kindle reader.
Kinda blew it at the end there.
(Probably just trying to throw a bone to the haters.)
