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That is, machine learning doesn't have to match experts or decades of experience or judgement. We’re not automating experts. Rather, we’re asking ‘listen to all the phone calls and find the angry ones’. ‘Read all the emails and find the anxious ones’. ‘Look at a hundred thousand photos and find the cool (or at least weird) people’. In a sense, this is what automation always does; Excel didn't give us artificial accountants, Photoshop and Indesign didn’t give us artificial graphic designers and indeed steam engines didn’t give us artificial horses. (In an earlier wave of ‘AI’, chess computers didn’t give us a grumpy middle-aged Russian in a box.) Rather, we automated one discrete task, at massive scale.

In 2014, the Google numbers imply under 24 months, but lengthening.

https://www.ben-evans.com/bene...

I could write words on this topic, but these words are better than mine would be:

http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2012/11/28/amazon-and-margins

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/9/4/why-amazon-has-no-profits-and-why-it-works

For investors, understand that not getting dividends from profits is not the same thing as not getting ROI. When you own stock in Amazon, and Amazon builds more of itself, then you own stock in more Amazon, and so your stock becomes more valuable. Also, that increase in value of the stock is considered to be capital gains, whereas money that would come from dividends is considered to be income, which is taxed at a higher rate than capital gains. These words may serve to illustrate this better than mine:

http://www.stocksplithistory.com/amazon-com/

AFAIK, Amazon made a profit on their ebooks market overall.

I doubt that's the case, but it's irrelevant. I'm not limiting it to ebooks. I'm talking about their whole business strategy. That their strategy so far is to make no profit is not in question. It's a fact.
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/8/8/amazons-profits

It's pretty obvious that Amazon is putting off the profit making plan till they have a monopoly.

Also, iPhones are the majority of smart phones in the US, approaching 2/3 market share.

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/4/24/q1-2013-us-smartphone-share