Jeff Bezos' Bad Timing?

from the must-have-written-that-speech-early dept

Tue, May 16th 2006 1:38am — Mike Masnick

theodp writes "Had Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos read Techdirt before his Monday luncheon keynote, he might have known better than to cite the soon-to-be-reexamined 1-Click technology as the poster child for Amazon innovation. And claiming it wasn't important to be afraid of competitors like Barnes & Noble on the same day as the eBay Supreme Court ruling was similarly ill-timed, since the ruling was likely to remind folks how Amazon got a leg up on BN by slapping them with an injunction over 1-Click." All of theodp's joking aside, Bezos' talk is getting plenty of attention thanks to the AP writeup that focuses on how the company needs to keep innovating to stay ahead of competitors -- which fits with exactly what we were just saying last week about how innovation is an ongoing process. Of course, that doesn't fit with the action against Barnesandnoble.com from a few years ago -- but, for the most part, Amazon has mostly kept its patents for defensive purposes, rather than to take out competitors. At the very least, it's good to see Bezos admit that the way you keep customers happy is by continually innovating, rather than trying to rest on your laurels and blocking others from innovating.

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7 Comments

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ctyankee, 16 May 2006 @ 5:05am

Wow!

Innovation is an ongoing process ...

You guys are the best.

So, what exactly have you guys done innovation wise or do you just make do with smarmy comments around those that have accomplishments?
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King Arthur's Court, 16 May 2006 @ 6:28am

Re:
Easy there, Mr. Internet Warrior. No need to get all Slashdot on people.
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Ben, 16 May 2006 @ 7:53am

Re:
haha, calm down there killer. techdirt is growing in popularity so they must be doing Something right.
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yardape6, 16 May 2006 @ 8:22am

ctyankee - slow your roll
If you were a long time reader of the site, you would recognize that the site has been revamped recently and is continually changing. Besides, I don't ever remember techdirt stating that they were a bastion of innovation, merely concerned journalists who want these issues to gain attention. If you don't like the articles move on. We don't need you here.

PS. I bet you own stock in Amazon don't you...
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Argo747, 16 May 2006 @ 9:26am

Explainations...
So, did Bezos go on to explain why Amazon's earnings are consistently disappointing? I mean an innovation like one-click should put them over the top, right? When was the last time Amazon really did anything novel to differentiate them from their competitors? Anyone? Anyone?
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ctyankee, 16 May 2006 @ 2:11pm

hey yardape - lick me
hahahahahha!
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ctyankee, 16 May 2006 @ 2:13pm

hey king arthur...
slash deez!
hahahahha
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