Posts tagged Prepares
Amazon Prepares For Tablet Commerce Revolution With Website Redesign
Sep 6th
These days, the tablet computer seems to be central to much of Amazon’s product strategy. The company is working on a substantial redesign of its website, which aims to simplify the browsing experience for users on iPads and other tablets.
The new design cleans up the site’s UI significantly, hiding the store department buttons on the left in favor of a tidy drop-down menu and doing away with many of the graphics and other UI elements that have become so familiar to Amazon shoppers. The result is a simpler layout with a bigger search box and much more whitespace.
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The news of the redesign comes just as Amazon prepares to release its own tablet, a 7-inch, $250 device expected to launch before Christmas.
It should come as no surprise that the new design appears to drive users more deliberately toward Amazon’s digital content, such as MP3s and e-books. The expectation of selling more of that content is why the company is releasing a tablet in the first place, and presumably why they’re willing to offer it at such a low price. Rather than make a ton of money on the device itself, Amazon is hoping its new touchscreen Kindle tablet will help it sell more e-books and music, all while posing what many expect to be the first serious challenge to Apple’s dominance in the tablet space.
By redesigning its entire website, Amazon appears to be betting on the future of tablet-based commerce in general, with or without its own device. The consumer tablet space is still relatively young (and expected to explode over the next few years), but early indicators suggest that those that do own tablets like to use them for shopping. In a recent report, Forrester found that their bigger screens, portability and more engaging user experience made tablets more ideal for mobile commerce than smart phones and other devices.
As the world’s biggest online retailer, it only makes sense for Amazon to prepare for the impending tablet revolution now by making their site easier to navigate from the devices. Since simplicity tends to make for more effective website design in general, the visual overhaul will have the added benefit of improving the experience for desktop-based visitors as well.
This would be true even if Amazon wasn’t preparing its own tablet. But it is. And even though it hasn’t even been formally announced yet, the company could sell as many as 5 million of them before the year is over, Forrester predicted last week.
View full post on ReadWriteWeb
FCC Prepares to Vote on Net Neutrality
Dec 1st
After months of debate and legal setbacks, the FCC has placed a vote on net neutrality rules on the tentative agenda for its December 21 meeting. According to the agenda, the Open Internet Order involves “adopting basic rules of the road to preserve the open Internet as a platform for innovation, investment, competition, and free expression. These rules would protect consumers’ and innovators’ right to know basic information about broadband service, right to send and receive lawful Internet traffic, and right to a level playing field, while providing broadband Internet access providers with the flexibility to reasonably manage their networks.”
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The FCC vote on December 21 will come shortly before a new Congress is sworn in in January 2011, and many members of the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives oppose net neutrality regulations.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke briefly this morning at the agency’s headquarters, outlining the proposal. He did not call for a reclassification of broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, as was proposed earlier this year – something that would have certainly given the FCC jurisdiction over this area. However, calling net neutrality an “important milestone in our effort to protect Internet freedom and openness,” Genachowski argued that the FCC’s draft order would help consumers, entrepreneurs, and broadband providers.
In outlining the proposal, Genachowski touted three things:
- Meaningful transparency: Consumers and innovators have a right to know basic information about broadband service, like how networks are being managed.
- Prohibition of blocking “lawful content”: “The proposed framework would prohibit the blocking of lawful content, apps, services, and the connection of non-harmful devices to the network,” said Genachowski.
- A level playing field: “No central authority, public or private, should have the power to pick which ideas or companies win or lose on the Internet; that’s the role of the market and the marketplace of ideas. And so the proposed framework includes a bar on unreasonable discrimination in transmitting lawful network traffic.”
- Meaning flexibility: Broadband providers should be able to “manage their networks — for example, to deal with traffic that’s harmful to the network or unwanted by users, and to address the effects of congestion.
Although Genachowski may have the votes to get the proposal passed by the FCC, the proposal will likely face opposition from members of Congress who see this move as falling outside FCC jurisdiction. And these rules may also fail to satisfy net neutrality proponents either, who note that the principles listed above apply only to wired networks.
Also on the agenda for the December Meeting, a Notice of Inquiry seeking public input on how to transition the voice-only 911 system to include new communication tools, including text, photo and video capabilities.
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Arkayne Inc., Closes Funding Round, Prepares to Launch First Two Products
Mar 4th
Arkayne Inc., Closes Funding Round, Prepares to Launch First Two Products
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—-Arkayne, Inc., a developer of interactive marketing software that helps businesses improve their online performance and content strategy, today announces it has closed its initial round of Angel funding totaling just over $1 million.
Read more on Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
SEO Consult Prepares Showcase Stands At Internet World & Online Marketing Show 2010
Jan 20th
SEO Consult Prepares Showcase Stands At Internet World & Online Marketing Show 2010
SEO Consult, one of the premier search engine optimisation agencies in the United Kingdom, today announce that they will be attending internet marketing trade shows Internet World and The Online Marketing Show 2010 when the events take place later this year. (PRWeb Jan 17, 2010) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/01/prweb3453824.htm
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