Slashdot Mirror
Watch Out Netflix, Amazon Streaming Video to Prime Users
ageoffri writes "Amazon has announced that they will include streaming with a subscription to Amazon Prime. The free 2 day shipping on a huge selection of products either sold directly by Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon is already worth the Prime cost. Now add in streaming that works out to just under $7/month and it gets better. Sure the selection isn't that great yet but this has the ability to really change the streaming market!"
So it's basically Netflix, with the exact same shortcomings of Netflix. I'd gladly pay at least twice what Netflix currently charges for streaming if I could get their entire collection that way. Unfortunately, the content providers haven't yet pulled their heads out of their asses and figured out that digital distribution is the future, so we're still stuck waiting for DVDs in the mail for most reasonably modern and/or highly rated content.
As digital distribution becomes more ubiquitous, more and more people will turn to piracy unless the content providers start allowing more of their stuff to be streamed legally. Hopefully they'll figure that out instead of fighting streaming every step of the way.
Not only works in Linux, but it works *well* in Linux.
Netflix can eat it.
Why bundle this with Amazon Prime? Why not just make it a separate subscription service? It feels like the equivalent of bundling a haircut with a tech support service subscription for a Linux distro.
While the library is small they give it away. Once they get a respectable library of titles they'll have a bunch of people who are using it to start charging while they claim "We never said it would be free for ever. You can't complain about something you were getting for free." Base on the amount of users they'll be able to measure what their monthly fee will be (the more popular it is the more they'll charge - up to the amount Nerflix charges - with a discount to Prime users).
Nor to anyone who currently get free Amazon shipping via a family member who is a member of Amazon Prime. The free video only applies to the single Amazon Prime member account:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200572880
"Prime instant videos require an Amazon Prime membership and are not included with the free shipping benefits provided by Amazon Mom, Amazon Student, or if you are a guest of an Amazon Prime member. To watch Prime instant videos, sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership at http://www.amazon.com/primevideos. If you are a member of Amazon Mom and sign up for a $79 Amazon Prime membership, you will lose any additional months of Amazon Prime shipping benefits you may have earned."
Amazon video on demand:
http://www.amazon.com/Video-On-Demand/b/ref=&node=16261631
Subset of "Prime Eligible" movies that Amazon will stream free to Prime members today (2153 results):
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_al_bw_srch?rh=n%3A16261631%2Cp_85%3A1&page=1&rw_html_to_wsrp=1&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=1G4XGFTBQHGKXW5S6ZP3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1288998822&pf_rd_i=16261631
Amazon's distribution center in Reno can hit 90% of the population of Northern California overnight with *regular* UPS shipping. If you order for regular 5-7 day delivery, they pick, pack and label your parcel, and then let it age on a warehouse shelf for a few days. If you pay for overnight or Prime, they don't age it. Amazon Prime is a racket, a profit center, not free shipping.
It's not like there is a continuous flow of infinite-capacity trucks rolling by the warehouse 24/7. Both Amazon and the shipping company have to maximize shipment density and at the same time minimize delivery time. One way to do this is to create artificial segments of shipping via pricing. The customers who pay less get a less certain delivery window. The customers who pay more get priority on that night's truck (or however they work it). It's not like the trucks drive faster if you pay more. You are paying more for priority in the logistics chain, which is well worth it for some people.
There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
fast and cheap books
More expensive than a paperback isn't my definition of cheap.
Their 3rd parties are a mixed blessing, as well. 90% of the time they aren't cheaper than driving down to a used bookstore and grabbing it, once you factor in the very silly shipping prices. I had a $0.99 book shipped to my house, it had $3.99 shipping. Upon getting it I noticed it shipped from less than five miles away, about a 10 minute drive, and for that I waited a week. Last time I went to the used bookstore I cross-referenced Amazon prices, the used bookstore won every single time once shipping was accounted for.
On rarer books (more uncommon than anything) their prices can get ridiculous. I've found a couple books listed for +$100, for a ten year old trade paperback that most bookstores can still probably order for you.
Their shipping... oh lord. I just ordered some stuff from Amazon after using Newegg for most of my needs, I now realize that I am spoiled. I order some random bit of hardware from Newegg with free to $0.99 shipping and it comes to my door within three days, no matter what. I order the same thing from Amazon (not even a third party), with $4.00 shipping and it comes to my door in a week, if not more (and spends around 4 days in a warehouse for no reason), and generally in a beaten up box 18 sizes too large with nothing but an airbag for protection.
I do use Amazon, I'm even fond of them, but they aren't the greatest thing in the world, and they haven't done everything right. They actually are quite mediocre on several areas. They win because they are big, ubiquitous, and convenient.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
The second downside is more insidious - since you've paid up front, Amazon can hold your money hostage. I saw one case a few years ago where Amazon had a dispute with a bunch of fatwallet types - Amazon shipped out 20-30 different products to a couple of hundred customers at a very low price and then changed their mind about the price after the orders were delivered. They told the buyers that they could either return the products for a refund or pay the difference in a second charge to their credit cards. Amazon even went so far as to process those second charges without getting permission.
The people who disputed the charge with their credit cards got the charges cancelled as they were never authorised in the first place. BUT Amazon then "froze" their accounts on their website. The people who had paid for Prime were SOL - sure they had the privilege of expedited shipping on any order for another ~10 months, they just couldn't place any orders. As far as I know, none of those people ever saw a penny of that Prime fee refunded.
I read the link you provided in your reply and then some. The "deal" the OP is referring to was a "buy one, get one of equal or lesser value free" offer, and was presented as such by Amazon. However, due to a glitch in their order processing system, it gave you credit multiple times for the lesser-priced of the items. The glitch was posted on a forum, and some people thought it would be clever to exploit the glitch. Reading the thread, apparently one guy ordered over $1,600 of DVDs for something like $25.
Amazon didn't "change their mind about the price." The terms were posted on the site, and any reasonable person would have known that the deal did not entail getting $1,600's worth of DVDs for $25 because of a billing glitch. Amazon simply corrected a billing error after giving people who exploited the error a very reasonable time to return the DVDs (with shipping pre-paid) if they didn't want to be charged. Some of the exploiters chose not to, Amazon billed them per the text of the offer, and a bunch of them complained that they weren't able to bilk Amazon out of thousands of dollars.
Those people were effectively trying to steal those DVDs as surely as if you knew a credit card processor at you local Best Buy is on the glitch and you thought you could get a new flat screen television for free. Personally, I'm glad Amazon didn't let them get away with it.