Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

Post by rtpg » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 12:16 AM UTC

textlapse wrote: post #225

If Amazon (and Google and Apple) couldn’t figure out how to monetize a voice/chat ‘app’ after a decade of plowing money into it, how does the whole LLM market come to fruition? Genuinely curious as I see a similar trend: there is definite consumer interest, but just like ‘kitchen timers on Alexa’ what if the LLMs main use case is simply to generate funny memes and the most basic RAG? How does this manifest into a tri…

Post by sebastiennight » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 12:20 AM UTC

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #344

tgma wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. Just choose to buy the way you wish to. Vote with your money and don’t artificially restrict where there’s zero issues. Everything works out in the end. I’d much rather transact in the US than Europe. The entire retail customer experience and return policy is unmatched. The last thing I want is for some government regulation to make it suck like Europe.

This is fun. The person you’ve replied to has stated a concrete (what they perceive to be) benefit of consumer protection regulation. One that doesn’t seem to limit choice at all, but rather improves visibility. I’m also inserting my own personal experience here. The country I live in, which isn’t in Europe, has similar regulation in place. In response you’re throwing around some vague notion of “freedom” and vague i…

Post by sebastiennight » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 12:23 AM UTC

chowells wrote: post #421

WalterBright wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tax exclusive prices lets you know how much the government is soaking you, rather than hiding it and blaming it on the business.

That's irrelevant. Give me the total price, so I know how much something will cost. I don't care what percentage of it goes where. I only care about easily evaluating whether something is worth the price. Seriously. I don't care if the total price consists of 100% tax or 0% tax. I care only what it is. I don't ask to know how much you pay the cleaners, how much it costs to operate the pool, how much corporate profit…

Post by sebastiennight » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 12:26 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #409

crazygringo wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This a million times. I swear I will never understand why Amazon's supply, organization, and pricing for household goods is such a disaster. Because their experience for mainstream books is mostly perfectly fine -- there's a single listing for each book, and the price doesn't change much, just some discount from list. It works. But for things like paper towels or Tide or whatever, it's utter chaos. Multiple listings…

Nothing on Amazon is going to work like books on Amazon do. Amazon is, originally and primarily, a bookstore. Amazon has long-established direct contracts with all book publishers (and in fact, a stranglehold over those publishers.) Any time you see a book listed on Amazon, it's a book sold by Amazon, attained directly from one of these publishers. AFAIK no third-party sellers are even allowed to sell "books" Fulfill…

Post by saagarjha » Thu, Jul 25, 2024, 12:28 AM UTC

sundvor wrote: post #292

RheingoldRiver wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really enjoy this joke, "Wow, my laptop is a really expensive clipboard today" "My monitor is a really expensive webcam stand" "My phone is a really expensive alarm clock" It's never not funny to me

Tesla: Really bloody expensive outside thermometer. (Via the app climate page, my Model 3 is in an detached-adjacent garage where zero attempt was made to insulate the gaps)