Amazon's Bezos Sees A Future Of All-Wireless
Customers
Tuesday, February 29, 2000 04:46 PM
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NEW ORLEANS (Dow Jones)--Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN,
news, msgs), said Tuesday that within the next decade all of his company's customers will access the
virtual store through wireless devices.
Bezos, speaking at the CTIA Wireless 2000 Conference here, said there will be challenges adopting
the coming technology. "Cell phones are one device that people are so used to using in one way," he
said, "and I think it will be a challenge."
But no one at the conference seems to think it won't happen.
Bezos is confident enough that he is cutting deals with handset makers like Nokia Corp. (NOK, news,
msgs) and service providers like Bell Atlantic Corp.'s (BEL, news, msgs) mobile division - two deals
announced at the conference.
"We're taking an approach to basically make us the No. 1 e-commerce site on their devices," he said,
"I think there are going to be a variety of relationships experimented with."
Amazon finished December with 17 million customers, up from 7 million a year ago.
Compaq Computer Corp. (CPQ, news, msgs) Chief Executive Michael Capellas and Sun
Microsystems Inc. (SUNW, news, msgs) President Ed Zander also predicted a wave of alliances as
the Internet and wireless converge.
Capellas said the winning companies in the next few years will be the ones making the best
partnerships. "If you can't partner effectively, you're in trouble," he said. "The ability to partner and build
alliances may be the most important competency for companies going forward on the Internet."
Compaq recently signed a deal with Motorola Inc. (MOT, news, msgs) to build a CDMA-based mobile
phone infrastructure in Beijing.
Capellas also said he sees consumers using multiple wireless devices in the future. He predicted
voice-activation will lead to greater acceptance of such devices. He also said that within four years
there will be 1 billion Internet-access devices in use worldwide.
Zander, whose company placed major bets on the Internet and explosion of broadband five years ago,
said his company will focus on the massive scale needed by networks to handle the onslaught of data
traffic and the need for continuous real-time connections.
"Our bet is there is no killer application," he said. "It will be personalization, the market will evolve into
billions of special cases."
Meanwhile, Solomon Trujillo, who will retire as chief executive of U S West Inc. (USW, news, msgs)
when it completes its midyear merger with Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q, news, msgs),
said service providers will be the link between customers and Internet-centric companies.
"Customers will always make choices," he said. "Who has the relationship with the customer
becomes a critical question. They do all the stuff, but somebody's got to put it all together."
While Trujillo sees service providers as crucial to the customer experience, Bezos seemed to think end
destinations like Amazon could ultimately benefit consumers.
"I'd like to see flat-rate pricing of wireless," Bezos said. "I think if that could be provided, it would not
only be huge for customers, but for service providers as well."
-By Johnathan Burns, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2020
Quote for referenced ticker symbols: AMZN, BEL, CPQ, MOT, NOK, Q, SUNW, USW
¸ 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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