Glenn, I'm not a vehement bull or bear on AMZN, but my question/comment is this: Since people are surfing the net more and more, this would seem to leave less, not more time to read books. Book sales are not going to go away, but book sales are not growing except in low single digit rates. Also, I find a trip to a B&N superstore much more enjoyable than surfing the web. I can pick up the books in my hands and read the jackets, cover, get a feel for the depth of the book content/length by reading pages at random.
I don't know about other people, but I like to get out of the house once in a while and see the real world. :-)
AMZN is also carrying a huge amount of debt, far larger than is normal for a healthy company.
This other talk about AMZN becoming a host supporting other outlets, becoming a "super-mall"; why does anyone need AMZN vs for instance Netscape, Yahoo, GeoCities, etc? It seems every on-line site is hoping to be the "biggie" which will become the online Mall of America. Seems like pie-in-the-sky stuff, reminicient of Emerald Research reports on Zitel.
While I'm not a vehement bear, I guess I have to admit that I'm not that enthused about AMZN's lofty expectations, either. I've surfed B&N's online site, and found it to be very very good. Various book assn reviews of the book, reader comments, etc. What more do you need. |
