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What’s Amazon without its books?

Jennifer Collins Oct 25, 2011
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What’s Amazon without its books?

Jennifer Collins Oct 25, 2011
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Steve Chiotakis: Later today, we’ll hear from e-tailer Amazon.com. The company may have started as an online bookstore.

But as Marketplace’s Jennifer Collins reports,
it’s grown into so much more.


Jennifer Collins: Amazon’s Kindle Fire has taken some jabs since the tablet was announced last month. This was “Saturday Night Live”‘s take on the iPad competitor.

“Saturday Night Live” clip: It’s expected to sell well among parents who always buy the wrong thing.

Analyst Fredrick Moran of the Benchmark Company says Kindle accounts for only about 5 percent of Amazon’s revenue. About 60 percent comes from retail items like clothes, kitchen appliances and flat screen TVs.

Fredrick Moran: Electronics products are the single biggest driver of Amazon’s revenue creation.

As retailers head into the holiday season, Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies says things may not be great for brick and mortar chains, but:

Roger Kay: What joy there is this season is likely go to Amazon and a couple of other companies.

Amazon brings in close to 40 percent of its revenue in the last three months of the year, so analysts will be watching closely to see how much joy there will be.

I’m Jennifer Collins for Marketplace.

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