"Tablet-optimized" redesign of Amazon online store

Amazon.com is rolling out a major redesign of its familiar website as it prepares to offer a new $250 tablet device to rival Apple Inc’s iPad, as reported by Reuters.

The changes in Amazon's online store “practically scream ‘tablet-optimized’,” TechCrunch blogger Sarah Perez wrote over the weekend after her site reported seeing a prototype of the company's new device.

The new web pages show a bigger search bar and less clutter to better highlight music, e-books, digital games and applications from the Amazon Appstore using Google’s Android operating system, the blog said.

Amazon started rolling out the new design in the last days of August, spokeswoman Sally Fouts said in an email on Sunday.  “We are continuing to roll out the new design to additional customers, but I can't speculate on when the new design will be live for everyone,” Fouts wrote.

Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is introducing the new site and tablet device as the company goes beyond its roots selling through personal computers to reaching customers via the kind of mobile connections they increasingly use.

Getting more mobile devices into the hands of Amazon customers is important, too, because it may enable more impulse buying and increased regular purchases.

The device Amazon is developing sports a back-lit, 7-inch (17.8-cm) screen -- smaller than the iPad’s and about the same as Research in Motion’s PlayBook, TechCrunch reported earlier. The Amazon tablet is geared toward playing music and movies off the Internet.

TechCrunch, which said it had played with a testing prototype, reported that the plan was for Amazon to offer Amazon Prime -- its $79-a-year Internet streaming service -- for free along with the gadget. The Internet retailer's first entry in the tablet computing arena -- its Kindle functions more like an electronic-book reader -- has been touted as a strong contender to Apple, whose iPad2 starts at $499, according to the company’s website.  Amazon’s tablet will be Wi-Fi only and come with a color touchscreen but a limited 6 gigabytes of memory, the tech blog said.

Motorola and Samsung have only chipped away at Apple’s three-quarters share of the market, while Hewlett Packard threw in the towel by announcing it would kill off its TouchPad after a final production run.  This past week, Sony Corp leapt into the field with its own poorly reviewed device. Analysts have been upbeat on Amazon’s gadget, particularly if it beats the iPad on price. It may sell as many as 5 million tablets in the fourth quarter, becoming the top rival to Apple, Forrester Research estimates.  Apple sells between 7 million and 9 million tablets a quarter.

3-minute survey on the "Coolest and Gaps" in brand experiences

I want to invite you all to participate in the "Coolest & Gaps" annual survey launched by Allegro 234, a brand consultancy in Madrid, Spain. My colleague Cristián Saracco is the founder and CEO of the firm, and he sent me this announcement:

Take the survey at https://www.questback.com/allegro234sl/coolestandgaps/

The survey is designed to learn the best brand experiences and the gaps in the different sectors. Unlike other surveys of this kind, "Coolest & Gaps" is the first study based on open answers and is designed to go beyond a simple ranking.

It's good to understand how to build a brand experience that is worth living, its usefulness, its value, its functionality ... the emotions it arouses. General Electric is one of the brands with higher value on a global basis, however, there are brands such as Agent Provocateur, Virgin or Patagonia whose value is significantly lower, however, generate a far more relevant experience to their target audiences… and this, in some point may be more important to know and useful to take decisions about our brands.

This initiative is being carried forward on a global level, through the publication of the invitation to participate in it, in different strategic marketing and branding blogs.

"Coolest & Gaps" is an online survey. It can be completed in less than three minutes and additionally among those who answer, 30 "Gift Cards" from Amazon will be given away. So take the surevey at https://www.questback.com/allegro234sl/coolestandgaps/

Votes may be cast until 11/14/08, and the results will be published in mid-December at the web sites of Allegro 234 (http://www.allegro234.net ) and Brand 3.0 (http://www.webjam.com/brand30 ).

Allegro 234 is a team of consultants specializing in creative and strategic marketing and branding. Recent clients include: Cosentino, Castilla y Leon, Casa del Libro, Codorniu, Grupo Lar, NOZAR Group, Grupo Uriach, Uralita Group, Repsol YPF.