What Did Amazon Do This Week? - 18-06-2023 [+30 LINKS]
AMAZON IS NOT GOING TO (RE:)MARS
Definitely, nothing to do with cost-saving, Amazon confirmed that the company will be cancelling its re:MARS conference (Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space), remember it definitely has nothing to do with cost savings. Hear that? It’s *not* to do with saving money. Instead, Amazon will be folding in different aspects to other events the company runs and that just happens to save a ton of cash…and, possibly more importantly, lowers expectations.
The event, first seen in 2019, brought a lot of firsts and surprises to the world. Many people freshly remember when Amazon demonstrated Alexa impersonating a deceased relative, for example. The focus was futuristic innovations, from warehouse innovation (remember giant hands Bezos?) to drone delivery and the now famous, yet not flying off shelves, dog robot). In the same week, Amazon allowed Addverb, a provider of automation and robotics solutions for the supply chain and logistics industry, to announce its partnership with AWS. The partnership will help Amazon to increase the efficiency of automated warehouse solutions but it won’t unnerve anyone who works for Amazon for just above minimum wage who has two hands, feet, and a mouth. Be under no illusions, this move is not one for the long-term ‘job security’ arena unless you build/fix robots.
SO WHAT?
Amazon is getting its house in order with regard to spending; cuts from employees to events make some sense. Amazon does have an awful lot of other ways to show off. Putting on a glitzy event when going through a period like this can make a company look weak, if they don’t have a ton of sexy announcements. Aside from this, unlike Apple, Amazon doesn’t really need glitzy events, or do them particularly well. Amazon is of the size that any move will be covered and press would go at the drop of a hat if told/asked to. The move also gives another nod that Amazon is back to laser-focusing on how its house works, rather than a bigger and bolder push into how ours work…for the foreseeable future at least.
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