SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
EXPLORE +
  • About infoDOCKET
  • Academic Libraries on LJ
  • Research on LJ
  • News on LJ
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Libraries
    • Academic Libraries
    • Government Libraries
    • National Libraries
    • Public Libraries
  • Companies (Publishers/Vendors)
    • EBSCO
    • Elsevier
    • Ex Libris
    • Frontiers
    • Gale
    • PLOS
    • Scholastic
  • New Resources
    • Dashboards
    • Data Files
    • Digital Collections
    • Digital Preservation
    • Interactive Tools
    • Maps
    • Other
    • Podcasts
    • Productivity
  • New Research
    • Conference Presentations
    • Journal Articles
    • Lecture
    • New Issue
    • Reports
  • Topics
    • Archives & Special Collections
    • Associations & Organizations
    • Awards
    • Funding
    • Interviews
    • Jobs
    • Management & Leadership
    • News
    • Patrons & Users
    • Preservation
    • Profiles
    • Publishing
    • Roundup
    • Scholarly Communications
      • Open Access

March 6, 2012 by Gary Price

The Economist Publishes Profile of Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos

March 6, 2012 by Gary Price

From The Economist:

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owes much of his success to his ability to look beyond the short-term view of things.
[Clip]
If Amazon does one day move into bricks-and-mortar retail, it would not be the first time that Mr Bezos had taken a leaf from the book of Jobs. Like Apple’s visionary leader, he has a strong sense of showmanship, which was on display at the carefully choreographed launch of the Kindle Fire last year. Mr Bezos can also be an intense and demanding manager. But most importantly, he shares with Mr Jobs an innate understanding of the importance of thinking about high-tech products from the customer’s point of view.
[Clip]
During the design of the original Kindle, for example, Mr Bezos insisted that the e-reader had to work without needing to be plugged into a PC. That meant giving it wireless connectivity. But he also wanted it to work everywhere, not just in Wi-Fi hotspots, and without the need for a monthly contract. This prompted the Kindle team to devise a new business model, striking deals with mobile-phone operators to allow Kindle users to download e-books without having to pay network fees. The ability to download books anywhere does not simply make life easier for users; it also encourages them to buy more books. The Kindle is an e-reader, but it is also a portable bookshop.
Similarly, with the Kindle Fire, Mr Bezos recognised that a tablet computer designed chiefly for consuming entertainment content is no use unless there is plenty of such content available. For many other tablet manufacturers, the question of getting content onto their devices seems to be an afterthought; but Amazon, like Apple, has assembled an ecosystem of books, apps, video and music to accompany its device. Moreover, Amazon can use cross-subsidies from the sale of digital content to keep the price of the Fire down, something that rival tablet-makers who do not sell content cannot do. Once again, Mr Bezos is playing a long-term game in the hope of establishing the Fire as the main rival to the iPad.

Read the Complete Article

Filed under: Jobs, Patrons and Users, Publishing

SHARE:

Amazon.comBooksE-BooksInfo IndustryInformation TechnologyJeff BezosKindleKindle Fire

About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Job Zone

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Infodocket Posts

New Report: "Alternative Publishing Platforms. What Have We Learnt?"

From Knowledge Exchange: Different alternative publishing platforms have appeared over recent years. But what are their pros and cons? Do they differ significantly from traditional scholarly journals? To better understand ...

Not Real News: An Associated Press Roundup of Untrue Stories Shared Widely on Social Media This Week

From the Associated Press: A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were ...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is Hosting a Virtual Roundtable on AI and Content Creation on October 4th

From the Federal Trade Commission: The Federal Trade Commission staff will be hosting a virtual roundtable discussion on October 4, 2023 to better understand the impact of the use of ...

Andrea Jackson Gavin Appointed Inaugural Program Director of the HBCU Digital Library Trust

Below is the Full Text of the Announcement Letter (via the Harvard Library): We are delighted to announce the appointment of Andrea Jackson Gavin as the inaugural Program Director of the ...

U.S. Census Releases 2020 Data for Nearly 1,500 Detailed Race and Ethnicity Groups, Tribes and Villages

From the U.S. Census: The U.S. Census Bureau today released 2020 Census population counts and sex-by-age statistics for 300 detailed race and ethnic groups, as well as 1,187 detailed American ...

Book Bans Spike by 33% During the Last School Year, According to New Research by PEN America

From PEN America:  The number of public school book bans across the country increased by 33 percent in the 2022-23 school year compared to the 2021-22 school year, according to ...

Penn State Leads Big Ten Academic Alliance Project on Open Homework Systems; ChatGPT Usage is Rising Again as...

AI ChatGPT Usage is Rising Again as Students Return to School (via Bloomberg) Universities Rethink Using AI Writing Detectors to Vet Students’ Work (via Bloomberg) Amazon AI-Generated Books Force Amazon ...

$800,000 Budget Cut Proposed: West Virginia University Library System Plans to Reduce Staff, Modify Space Amid University Cuts;...

From WCHS: Following the vote to cut 28 majors and more than 100 faculty positions at West Virginia University, the university’s library system could be the next to take the ...

American Library Association (ALA) Releases Preliminary Data on 2023 Book Challenges; Highest Number of Book Challenges Since ALA...

UPDATE LeVar Burton to Lead 2023 Banned Books Week as Honorary Chair (via ALA) —End Update— Below is the full text of a statement released today by the American Library ...

Harris County Libraries Declared a 'Book Sanctuary' Amid State Crackdown; UCLA Library Receives $4.2 Million Political Cartoon Collection...

Acquisitions UCLA Library Receives $4.2 Million Political Cartoon Collection Spanning Centuries (via UCLA  California At 20, San Jose’s MLK Library Remains a Partnership For the Books (via The Mercury News) ...

The Lens Loads Now Open Dataset From Crossref of Retraction Watch Papers; Digital Science Announces Brand Redesign for...

Clarivate Clarivate Unveils Citation Laureates 2023 – Annual List of Researchers of Nobel Class Digital Science Digital Science Announces Brand Redesign for ReadCube and Papers Internet Archive IMLS National Leadership Grant ...

New From AUPresses & Ithaka S+R: "Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study"

From a Joint News Release: The Association of University Presses (AUPresses) and Ithaka S+R today publish “Print Revenue and Open Access Monographs: A University Press Study.” This report is the ...

ADVERTISEMENT

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Tweets by infoDOCKET

ADVERTISEMENT

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • Programs+
  • Design
  • Leadership
  • People
  • COVID-19
  • Advocacy
  • Opinion
  • INFOdocket
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Booklists
  • Prepub Alert
  • Book Pulse
  • Media
  • Readers' Advisory
  • Self-Published Books
  • Review Submissions
  • Review for LJ

Awards

  • Library of the Year
  • Librarian of the Year
  • Movers & Shakers 2022
  • Paralibrarian of the Year
  • Best Small Library
  • Marketer of the Year
  • All Awards Guidelines
  • Community Impact Prize

Resources

  • LJ Index/Star Libraries
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies

Events & PD

  • Online Courses
  • In-Person Events
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Submit Features/News
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Careers at MSI


© 2023 Library Journal. All rights reserved.


© 2022 Library Journal. All rights reserved.