Amazon Predictions for 2012

What does the future hold for the internet’s largest retailer? While there is no way of knowing for sure what Amazon has up its sleeve in 2012, it is safe to say that the retail giant is going to once again make a big splash.

Many people believe that Amazon will have a difficult time topping its 2011 accolades. Last year, the company opened its own App store, released the Kindle Fire, and launched a cloud storage service – and that was just the start.

What does the new year hold for Amazon? Here are three predictions to keep an eye on as the months go by:

Bigger Sales and Improvements for the Kindle Fire

According to many industry insiders, Amazon sold more than 5 million Kindle Fire tablets during the fourth quarter of 2011. By riding this momentum, you can expect bigger and better things for this device in the new year.

Although unconfirmed, reports have surfaced regarding a Kindle Fire with a bigger screen. While welcomed by some, many worry about what this will do to the low price – which as of now is one of the biggest benefits of this tablet.

Sales Tax Issue Gets Resolved

In short, Amazon is exempt from charging sales tax in most states because the company does not have a physical presence required by the law in that state. While this has led to major issues (no longer eligible for the program) for affiliates in some states, we expect this to get cleared up sooner rather than later.

The state of Indiana recently resolved this issue with Amazon, with the web retailer agreeing to start collecting sales tax in 2014. With this, the state is expected to generate another $20+ million in annual sales tax revenue.

Amazon Prime Poised for Big Growth

With Amazon Prime, customers have access to everything from two-day shipping to movies and television shows to free books and much more. In 2012, expect the company to throw a lot of time and money at this service. Premium accounts could come into play, possibly offering greater access to free magazines, music, and apps.

As the company continues its attempt to convert customers into users, doing so through the Amazon Prime service makes perfect sense.

Jan 10, 2012 by Chris Bibey in Amazon Associates Program

Expedia Affiliate Network to open up its technology in 2012

Expedia Affiliate Network is to follow the example of Facebook and Amazon by opening up its technology to travel partners so they can develop their own unique selling propositions.

It hopes that lifting the lid on its technology by creating an open travel platform of services will spark a new flurry of innovation in the sector worldwide.Expedia plans to start rolling out this open platform in mid 2012, allowing access to a limited number of its existing products at first.

Benoit Jolin, global product and marketing vice president, said: “We want to unleash creativity in the travel sector.

“We want to provide our partners with the business assets to understand the complexity of online travel commerce, so they can build a better way for their customers to plan and book the perfect trip.

“The big focus is on how we go from being a manufacturer and retailer of travel products that help people monetise their traffic to becoming a platform.

“We are taking things miles beyond what we offer today to figure out if this can further fuel the innovation of online travel marketing. Will this create the next Hipmunk?”

Get the full story at Travolution

Myspace Collapses

Myspace has become Deadspace, a virtual ghost town if you will.  Over the last few years rival networks like Facebook and Twitter have evolved into the socially accepted platforms for todays internet users. 

With Specific Media's buyout today of the once mega giant for a mere $35 million we can all learn a valuable lesson that man has know for years. 

To survive you must adapt.  Evolution has always been the key to mans success in life. 

TechCrunch reports that in a chat with TV host Jimmy Fallon at the NExTWORK conference former Facebook Presdient and founder of Napster Sean Parker cites Myspace's demise.  "[MySpace failed] to execute the product development," he told Fallon. "They weren't successful in iterating and evolving the product enough, it was basically this junk heap of bad design that persisted for many, many years. There was a period of time where if they had just copied Facebook rapidly, I think they would have been Facebook. The network effects, the scale effects were enormous. There was so much power there."  Parker himself knows this lesson to well after succesfully helping evolve music today with Napster. 

With the internet growinghas rapidly as it has new ideas and better ways to improve are a must.  In order to stay on the cutting edge you have to live on the cutting edge.  I heard through various reports that Rupert Murdoch doesn't even use email and has trouble handling a cell phone.  If this is true how can anyone, even a billionare like Murdoch, justify spending over a half billion dollars on a company he doesn't even use the services of?  Its no wonder the company failed due to the owners lack of ambition and know how on social networking.  Another lesson learned the hard way I guess.