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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack T. Pearson who wrote (31102)	12/24/1998 9:23:00 PM
From: llamaphlegm	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

<<<We've seen this happen before: IBM failed at getting into the PC operating system business; Compaq has failed at getting into direct sales; AOL stops Compuserve; Cisco and 3Com take the networking market away from IBM; Intel tries to enter the PC business and fails. Compare Amazon's cash flow with their competitor's over the last year or quarter. P.S.: When the bubble bursts, will the Internet disappear?>>>> 1. 000 or few barriers to entry 2. margin compression 3. few if any switching costs 4. commodity retailer v. manufacturerer I could go on, but why bother. As for the bubble bursting, no the internet will not disappear -- it is an effective medium, but many of the companies will and far more of speculators money will also go poof.

To: Jack T. Pearson who wrote (31102)	12/25/1998 11:02:00 AM
From: tonyt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

Interesting 'examples'. I find it somewhat incorrect that you state that 'IBM failed at getting into the PC operating system business' (ever heard of os/2?), or that 'Compaq has failed at getting into direct sales' (see compaq.com. IBM may have lost the OS 'war', but the battle is still on as far as on-line selling of PC's is concerned. Also you completely neglected the perfect example of what you were trying to say, and that is how Compaq took the #1 spot as seller of PC's from the established IBM. I guess this shows that being first does not guarantee success. (i.e. Visicalc, Wordperfect). Someone will eventually come along and eat Bezo's lunch. I don't know if it will be an established company (i.e. Microsoft), or a newcommer, but Amazon's position is not assured. >P.S.: When the bubble bursts, will the Internet disappear? Of course not, the internet (really aparnet) has been around since the 60's!!