“Amazon will increase the annual cost of Prime for U.S. customers to $119 per year, up 20% from $99 currently — news coming after it blew the doors off revenue and profit expectations in the first quarter,” Todd Spangler reports for Variety.
“The price increase will take effect starting June 16 for existing Prime customers based on their renewal period, CFO Brian Olsavsky said on Amazon’s first-quarter 2018 earnings call,” Spangler reports. “New members will pay the $119 price starting May 11. The company last raised the price of Prime in the U.S. in March 2014.”
“Asked on the call why Amazon was raising rates now, Olsavsky cited rising costs because of higher shipping expenses and spending on digital content,” Spangler reports. “Four years ago, Prime offered free two-day shipping on 20 million products in the U.S., Olsavsky noted. Today Amazon offers more than 100 million products in Prime available within two days, and many are available even faster than that — with same-day or two-hour delivery.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Alexa, which company will be the first to a trillion-dollar market value?
How much would Apple Inc. be worth today had a Jeff Bezos-type CEO taken over the reins instead? – MacDailyNews, November 21, 2017
SEE ALSO:
Amazon begins free delivery to your car – April 24, 2018
Americans place Apple distant third behind Amazon and Google in ‘positive impact on society’ survey – April 23, 2018
Amazon hits 100 million Amazon Prime members milestone – April 19, 2018
Apple loses ground to Amazon in smart home deals with homebuilders – April 16, 2018
Amazon completes Ring acquisition, drops price of original video doorbell under $100 – April 12, 2018
Apple vs. Amazon: Who will win race to be world’s first $1 trillion company? – April 2, 2018
Former Apple employees reflect on Siri’s ‘squandered lead’ over Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant – March 14, 2018
It was a good deal at $79 when I first got it 11 years ago and now it is a great deal for the added features at $120 a year ($10 a month).
I spend more than that just for Netflix!!
I canceled my Prime this morning. I just don’t use it enough to justify the price increase. I never used their audio streaming, not a fan of their video offerings, and for my hobby purchases, I can find better deals at other sites, so Prime free shipping is not a savings for me. I have friends and family that shop there all the time, so it makes sense for them.
They are definitely doing something right though, and proving it all the time with these results.
Yep I’ll be doing the same three days before my subscription renews. This is the problem with subscription model’s every time you turn around they go up up up. I’m entrenched in Apple Music and iTunes I don’t even bother with Amazons music not even the television. At $129 a year for Amazon prime I’m better off canceling it and doing as I did previously wait five days for delivery if need be
I agree. When all these added perks that I bet few people use, when they are driving a price increase, the whole service starts to seem like a bad deal. Hey. We are going to give you more things that you don’t want and unfortunately we have to charge you more. It would be like buying a house for a good price but then the owners decide to let you have the old junker car in the yard, the washer and dryer that’s on its last leg, the 8track cassette stereo that eats tapes and then says they are upping the price you agreed on.
even the MDN take and commenters here are anti-apple and pro monopolist amazon. should start calling it Amazon Daily News.
“How much would Apple Inc. be worth today had a Jeff Bezos-type CEO taken over the reins instead?”
Answer- stock might be worth more but it would be a worse, less profitable company. Jeff Bezos is a twat
Two questions:
If Bezos was CEO what would be the status of:
– Mac Mini
– Mac Pro
– MacOS
– Siri
– Airport Routers (was the most highly recommended router by Amazon.
Beezus would be better than Cook you’re crazy
Tim Cook looks at Amazon Prime and salivates.
One big difference between Amazon today and Apple is that Jeff Bezos is willing to take risks on failure. He has green-lighted projects he did not think were good, but his people were passionate about and that is not what we see coming from Apple these days.
Apple is letting products wither on the vine and the experience at Apple Retail is less than the stellar thing it once was. The company is morphing from a technology company to a fashion brand and lifestyle brand- not a good thing.
This shareholder in both Apple and Amazon has more confidence in the future of Amazon than Apple- given current leadership.
It may not all be Tim’s fault. Perhaps the huge majority (> 3 Nines) of Apple employees are only ‘passionate’ about the iOS ecosystem these days.
Apple is like IBM. It’s not going away ever. Amazon is way more volitile.
Volatile
That’s the kind of innovation Wall St likes. (sarcasm)
Similar to Apple, the further you go into the Amazon ecosystem (Fire Tablets, Fire TV, Echo) the stickier it becomes. Unlike Apple there are more ‘gateways’ to accessing and using Amazon Services (Video, Music, shopping) from 3rd party devices.
Time for Apple to ‘match’ Amazon’s bundled subscription model in some way?