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Amazon Retreats: Will Close 68 Brick & Mortar Stores in U.S. and U.K.

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[Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid]

Company Exiting Bookstores, 4-Star Stores, and Pop-Up Stores

Yesterday Amazon announced it will close all of its non-grocery bricks and mortar locations, ending its foray into physical store locations. The company had previously entered the physical bookstore business – a business that many feel its online business destroyed – as well as pop-up stores and its 4-star shops that carried a selection of its best-selling online products. However, the company will keep its grocery stores and a department store concept.

See more on Amazon exiting bricks & mortar retail stores

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Leaked Internal Amazon Docs Show Users Quickly Tire of Smart Speakers

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Amazon products

End of the Smart Speaker Era?

Amazon is widely credited with having created the entire smart speaker category with their Alexa voice-controlled Echo smart speaker and other products. The company has sold millions of them since their introduction in 2015, especially at often insane sale prices during the holiday selling season. But Bloomberg Businessweek has come into possession of leaked internal Amazon documents that paint a portrait of a category that appears to be in serious trouble, principally because it fails – often miserably – to retain consumer interest.

And, the documents show, not only do consumers lose their interest…they lose it quickly.

See more on smart speaker problems identified in Amazon internal docs

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Goliath Has Fallen; Sonos Prevails Over Google in ITC Patent Action

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Sonos portable speaker - the company has sued Google for patent infringement

But Did Google Ultimately Outsmart Them?

I don’t think it’s possible for me to overstate the significance of what just happened last week when, in a final decision from the U.S. International Trade Commission, the full panel affirmed a commission judge’s ruling that Google had in fact infringed on five patents held by Sonos. It is a real-life version of the bible story of David versus Goliath. Make no mistake, this David’s win may change our industry in fundamental ways.

A Tech David takes down a Tech Goliath

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Amazon Founder Bezos No Longer the World’s Richest; You Should Be Concerned

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[Photo: Gutierrez/Associated Press]

Last Friday, Amazon founder and now former CEO Jeff Bezos woke up the richest man in the world. He has been the richest man in the world for quite some time now. Yet when he went to bed Friday evening, he was no longer. And the reason that’s so should serve as a warning to you and all of us in the tech biz in 2021.

See why you should take warning from the Jeff Bezos situation

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How Big is Amazon in E-Commerce? Bigger Than You May Realize

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Amazon logo on sign

In new data from market researcher eMarketer, we learn more details on just how well e-commerce sales are doing both overall and for specific players such as Target and Amazon. It is pretty well known that as the pandemic rolled out in early Spring of 2020, Americans were thrust into quarantine and a 24/7/365 existence at home. This caused many to order their supplies from online retailers, even those consumers who had not previously ever purchased online before. Clearly, COVID was horrible for America (and the world) but good for the e-commerce business.

All online retailers did well, with companies like Walmart and Target seeing their e-commerce operations really gain some traction. But did some do better than others? Oh yeah…

See more on the current state of Amazon and e-commerce

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Amazon Readies Entry into Step-Up Smart Home Control Market

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Amazon Looks to Compete with Control4 & Others

Amazon.com Inc.’s secretive tech innovation development center, called Lab126, is said to be working on a more robust, step-up smart home control solution designed to be mounted into the wall, in a bid to take share in the custom integration channel. The move, first reported by Bloomberg News, is designed to take on major players such as SnapAV’s Control4 and other “professionally installed smart home control” providers.

But will it cannibalize their own Echo Show line?

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In Sonos’ Claim That It’s a Victim, Some Skeptics See a Rich Irony

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Sonos logo

This Friday, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence will testify before a Congressional committee (the House antitrust subcommittee) that is investigating the issue of competition in digital markets. Or, I should say, they are investigating whether the tech giants – Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, etc. – are engaging in anti-competitive activities in violation of the law. The Sonos CEO is likely to complain that Google is in fact anti-competitive. Spence’s appearance takes place literally just days after it has filed a major patent infringement lawsuit against Google – alleging that the tech giant stole its proprietary technology…making them a victim.

But some see this claim of Google victimizing Sonos as a bit of rich irony…

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Tech Hit Hard in Latest Reputation Index Survey

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Privacy Backlash Hits Google, Amazon & Facebook; What About LG, Samsung, Sony?

2019 RepTrak Ranking

In a new survey by Reputation Institute on corporate reputation, known as the 2019 RepTrak 100, we see wild swings in tech brands’ reputation with consumer privacy concerns finally appearing to take a major toll. With an overall all-category average reputation rating increase of +0.8 points, technology as a segment saw its collective reputation drop by 1 full point on the scale.

But the news wasn’t all bad – movie king Netflix, Inc. jumped 23 spots to come in at #1 for the first time in their history.

Read on to see how your favorite tech brand fared…

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Japan Opens Antitrust Inquiry into Amazon

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Amazon logo

At the urging the industry minister of Japan, the country’s Fair Trade Commission will look at a new program announced by Amazon Japan that some suggest may be anti-competitive in nature. Depending on the Commission’s findings, Amazon may be forced to abandon the idea, which is a form of a consumer rebate program.

See more on Amazon’s troubles in Japan…

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