Founded 20 years ago in July 1994, Amazon is now a Fortune 500 company, ranking number 35 (Fortune, 2014). Their mission is "to be Earth's most customer-centric company where people can find and discover anything they want to buy online"" (Amazon.com, 2013). They sell a variety of products ranging from books, movies, games, clothing, sporting goods, and health & beauty products. Amazon's most recent addition is, the Fire TV. In 2007, Amazon came out with the first Kindle and has since expanded their selections to offer like Fire, Paperwhite, HD, and HDX. Prime membership is offered for an annual fee for customers to receive discounts on shipping, stream free music and watch instant videos.
Recently, Amazon announced their smartphone, called Amazon Fire Phone. The most notable feature of the Fire Phone is its 3-D like display. Amazon's smartphone prices are comparable to those smartphones already in the market. Much like Apple, when it first hit the market, the Fire Phone will be an AT&T exclusive. With Amazon's app called the Firefly, consumers can access a variety of features, like music, books, contacts, and even send emails, all without having to type it all into the phone. Although the Fire Phone is not receiving rave reviews now, we must wait until July 25, 2014, to see how it holds up when compared to Samsung's Galaxy and Apple's iPhone.
Factors which Affect Demand, Supply and Equilibrium Prices .
The top five carriers of wireless communication are Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US, and U.S. Cellular (FierceMarkets, 2014). These figures are based on subscribers, churn, average revenue per user (ARPU), and revenue (FierceMarkets, 2014). The churn rate is a percentage based on the number of customers that cancel a cell phone plan, for any reason (Mobile Burn, 2013). Although, Amazon has proven to be an e-commerce giant, it will not be an easy task breaking into the wireless communication market.