Amazon.com, Inc.
(
AMZN
) has recently announced that its Cloud Player can stream music
wirelessly through the Sonos Wireless HiFi System. Management has
added Sonos to the compatible Cloud Player device list due to the
popular demand from its customers.
John MacFarlane and Trung Mai founded the Sonos Wireless HiFi
System in 2002. The vision of the company is to provide an
out-of-the world experience of listening to music through the best
sound quality possible.
Amazon's Cloud Player is like a web storage application, which
allows people to listen to their music from any computer or Android
device with Internet access. It allows streaming on devices such as
Kindle Fire, Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and PC. Amazon
doesn't give out exact numbers, but the Cloud Player has apparently
won millions of users since its launch in early 2011.
Amazon lets users buy music from its own library of 20 million
tracks and also allows imports from other sources. However, while
Amazon has sweetened the deal by offering the first 250 songs free
but anything in excess of 250 and up to 250,000 requires an annual
subscription of $24.99 a year. Amazon currently offers the service
to U.S. consumers alone, but one might expect expansion in
international markets in the not-too-distant future.
Apple
(
AAPL
) on the other hand does not charge annually, but only for what
users download. A song costs around 99 cents in the iTunes store,
but is available for playback on any iCloud registered device at no
extra cost..
Amazon's strategy of including Sonos makes its service more
ubiquitous. It is expected that since the inclusion of the Sonos
system will bring more users to the Amazon cloud, it would help
push sales of all its other digital goods. Therefore, while iTunes
still leads in the segment, Amazon's tactics could bring rapid
market share gains for the company.
Amazon's second quarter results were more or less within
expectations. Reported revenue of $12.83 billion was down 2.7%
sequentially and up 29.5% from the year-ago quarter. This was
better than the guidance for the quarter of $11.9-13.3 billion
(down 4.4% sequentially, or up 27.1% year over year at the
mid-point) and in-line with consensus expectations. Year-over-year
revenue growth was 32%, excluding an unfavorable currency
impact.
Amazon is one of the leading players in the extremely
fast-growing retail eCommerce market. While the strong growth
prospects are making the market more competitive by the day, Amazon
continues to maintain and even grow its share on the back of its
consistent and reliable service. Amazon's scale of offerings, its
broad reach and platform approach are the keys to its success.
Currently, Amazon has a Zacks #3 Rank, which implies a Hold
rating in the near term.
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