How does Amazon.com finally plan to put its brick and mortar competitors out of business? Using a new mobile feature from the online retailing giant, consumers can take mobile photos of items they
want to buy, store them in an online shopping cart, and then complete the purchase --usually at a discount -- whenever they want. The application, designed for Apple's iPhone, lets consumers reference
Amazon's entire catalog of items and complete purchases with a single click.
Amazon's innovative mobile app is just one reason why the online retailer is expected to emerge from the economic
recession relatively unscathed. As Stifel Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt tells
BusinessWeek, "When we come out of this and there is less competition, (Amazon's) business is going to grow at an
accelerated rate." Devitt emphasizes that Amazon's business has scale, a strong reputation, a broad array of product offerings, and a huge stake in research and development, which has led to new
product offerings like the iPhone app.
In fact, Cowen & Co. analyst Jim Friedland points out that Amazon has spent nearly $4 billion on R&D over the past 10 years, which is vastly greater
than the investment by online competitors like eBay, which has spent $2.7 billion on R&D in the same time period. Friedland says this investment has been "a key factor in gaining share of consumers'
wallets."
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