Amazon is bolstering its e-commerce empire while continuing a march deeper into people's lives, from robots to health care and entertainment. Innovations unveiled in recent days by the Seattle-based tech titan included a delivery van computer system to shave time off deliveries by its speed-obsessed logistics network. Amazon Stores boss Doug Herrington said that the technology enables vans to recognize stops and signal which packages to drop off. "When we speed up deliveries, customers shop more," Herrington said. "For 2024, we're going to have the fastest Prime delivery speeds around the world," he added, referring to Amazon's subscription service. On top of that, according to Herrington, Amazon last year managed to cut 45 cents off the cost per unit shipped, a huge savings when considering the massive volume of sales. Amazon last year recorded profit of more than $30 billion on revenue of $575 billion, powered by its online retail operation and its AWS cloud computing division. "They have this whole flywheel model with Amazon Prime membership in the middle," said eMarketer analyst Suzy Davidkhanian. "That's the glue that keeps everything together." Businesses include retail, advertising, cloud computing and streamed movies and music. But that very model has the 30-year-old company facing a US government lawsuit, accused of expanding an illegal monopoly and otherwise harming competition. Amazon makes money from data gathered about consumers, either by targeting ads or through insights into what products they might like, Davidkhanian said. That was why Amazon paid for expensive rights to stream NFL American football games on Prime Video in a move that promises to help it pinpoint fans of the sport. Amazon's digital assistant Alexa can order items on command and has been even built into appliances such as washing machines to let them automatically buy supplies like laundry soap as... |