It's no secret that Amazon (AMZN) has ambitions about delivery by drone in the U.S.; it all began when CEO Jeff Bezos appeared on 60 Minutes in December 2013 and talked about the company's program, Prime Air.
Apparently, Google (GOOG) wants in on the game as well.
As part of the company's restructuring to announce Alphabet, the holding company that will break out the core Google business from its other interests like driverless cars, Nest, Google Fiber and others, Alphabet CEO Larry Page made particular mention about the company's plans for drones.
"Alphabet will also include our X lab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, our drone delivery effort," Page wrote.
Google has spent several years working on its drone prototypes, testing them all over the globe, in places like Australia.
In August, the company released a YouTube video showing off Project Wing and its potential.
Amazon has said that its intention is to get customers their packages in 30 minutes or less (assuming they live in a delivery zone), and it seems as if Google's intentions are similar.
Google has been expanding its Shopping program, allowing customers to look for products on the Internet, comparing prices among different websites. Google Express, Google's service which lets users shop local stores online and get items delivered the same day or overnight is also part of the company's e-commerce initiatives.
In the past, Amazon has wrote that it expects drones and its Prime Air delivery service will become "as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today." Given the increase in competition between Google and Amazon for ads, eyeballs and consumer dollars, it's increasingly likely the competition for drone supremacy will be between these two as well.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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