Friday, November 7, 2014

• Amazon quietly launched Echo, a voice-controlled smartspeaker with integrated voice-ordering from Amazon: Initial reactions are mixed at best:  Echo is priced at $199, Amazon said on its website today. Members of Amazon’s Prime fast-shipping program can purchase the gadget for $99 for a limited period. With Echo, Amazon can plant a voice-activated device in homes that lets users easily order things from the Web retailer by adding it to their shopping lists via voice command and later confirming the purchase through a companion app. Yet it’s unclear if consumers will see enough benefits and convenience to embrace another piece of hardware. “It seems like an odd and not-very-useful product,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “The consumer doesn’t need yet another device in their home that replicates what they already have on their phone.” Amazon introduced Echo with little fanfare, simply putting up a Web page about the device.

• Despite splashy new investments and Alibaba, SoftBank is hurting from its Sprint investment: A 15 percent drop in SoftBank’s shares this year suggests investors have concerns about its shorter-term prospects. The company this week reduced its annual operating profit outlook by 10 percent, citing mounting losses at Sprint. Its 80 percent ownership of Sprint is worth about $15.5 billion, less than the $22 billion SoftBank paid last year. Sprint’s shares have slumped 54 percent in New York this year. After the company reported its 11th straight quarter of subscriber losses this week, the stock fell 21 percent in the last two days alone. In addition to Sprint, and the the 32% stake in Alibaba, SoftBank owns 36%  of Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689) and 40% of GungHo. Those stakes are worth $8.6 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively, according to its website.

• Location-based audience targeting is used by 18% of US mobile retailers (set to double in a year);  Geo-location could turn help offline retailers fight back against online: In category after category, Amazon has steadily eroded the market share of traditional bricks-and-mortar retail chains, which seem to be in a state of irreversible decline. Much of the online giant’s competitive advantage is based on its access to and mastery of rich customer data. Traditional retailers know relatively little about their customers, unless they have a loyalty card and actually buy something – and even this knowledge comes late, after a purchase is made. They have no way to cross sell, recommend new products, or target advertising. Unlike Amazon, they can’t tell if a potential customer visits the store or passes by it without buying anything. But all that is about to change because traditional retail is starting to wake up to the potential of geolocation, which is giving the new wave of data analytics companies ways to help bricks-and-mortar retailers make up for the data deficit. A separate analysis finds that 18 percent of US mobile marketers plan to use iBeacon technology to target consumers this year. "We expect that to double next year," she said.