Amazon has quietly transformed into a full blown titan that is taking on the best in the tech industry

Amazon is known as a prominent player in the e-commerce segment. Amazon is the fourth largest tech company, behind Foxconn, Samsung and Apple. Amazon is also the largest Internet company, according to the second quarter sales report for this fiscal year. Amazon moves so many packages around the world, that it was cheaper for Amazon to use its own Cargo plane. The Amazon One: Prime Air is just the first of a fleet of 40 jetliners that Amazon has planned.

However, with package delivering drones, automated warehouses, flexible cloud services, AI based products, checkout less physical stores and dedicated IoT buttons for ordering things, Amazon is actively making science fiction concepts a reality. Amazon has grown to be much more than an e-commerce web site, and is now dominating territories that were traditionally the home grounds of the likes of Google, Microsoft and IBM. [caption id=“attachment_353071” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Amazon is ahead of the game when it comes to cloud services. Source: Synergy Research Group.[/caption] Earlier this year, Amazon got permission from the UK Government to test out Drone deliveries in the UK . Amazon is planning on implementing a system where automated drones make deliveries at doorsteps from nearby warehouses. Amazon had previously tested out Drone deliveries in the US , and had intended to test in India as well, but the tests did not take off. Now, it has started happening. Drones are delivering packages ordered from Amazon. https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/809034847121350657 According to a report in CNET, the customer ordered an Amazon Fire TV and a bag of popcorn. The drone took 13 minutes to deliver the order. The drone delivery service is still in beta, and only two customers in the UK can use it as of now. The drones are guided by GPS and have a carrying capacity of 2.26 kg. Delivery by drone is a means for Amazon to reduce shipping costs, as well as provide better customer service with faster deliveries. A worldwide rollout of such a service would require a number of security and safety clearances. Here is how the drone delivery works.

Amazon just launched its Amazon Prime Video service worldwide . China is left out, but Amazon Prime Video is available practically everywhere else. Amazon is going toe to toe with Netflix with the move. Amazon intends to invest heavily in original content in the new markets, including India. Japan has already enjoyed Amazon Originals. Amazon has to by and large catch up to Netflix in terms of original content as well as subscribers. The Grand Tour by Amazon just became the most pirated TV series in history . [caption id=“attachment_352227” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  The Grand Tour is the TV comeback of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, who previously worked for the BBC hit show Top Gear.[/caption] Amazon has moved quickly to introduce local language e-books in India , an opportunity lost by local online retailers. The move will introduce the multitude of non English speakers in India to the offerings by Amazon. At launch, the e-books are available in five regional languages, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and Malayalam. The books can be read on a Kindle device, or on the free apps for iOS and Android.  India is one of the largest markets for tech companies, and there is an increasing focus of efforts in India . The Demonetisation of the high value notes, has benefited Amazon in India . The site has registered a triple digit growth. Amazon is offering Point of Sale services on delivery, allowing users to swipe cards when they receive the orders.

Amazon has opened up a brick and mortar grocery store in Seattle without checkout lines or counters. Cameras and barcode scanners automatically track the items picked up by customers. Shoppers can drop in, pick items and walk out of the store. Sensors placed all around the store automatically sends a bill to the Amazon accounts of the shoppers. If thousands of such stores were to open up across the country, it would be a threat to the existing retail chains. Amazon Go is the world’s most advanced grocery store. Retail outlets that use sensors for automatic checkouts are the future of retail . [caption id=“attachment_350788” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  AWS has advanced features for processing images of faces. Image: Amazon.[/caption] Towards the end of 2016, Amazon made a series of announcements in relation to new artificial intelligence based technological products. Developers can integrate these services from Amazon directly into their hardware and software products. Lex is a framework and environment for creating chatbots. Polly is a cloud based text to speech service, which supports languages and accents around the world. Rekognition is an Image identification service that can identify scenes and objects in an image, as well as specifics for humans such as whether their eyes and mouths are open, and what emotion they are probably feeling. [caption id=“attachment_322912” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image credit: Amazon[/caption] The real winner for Amazon is Amazon Web Services (AWS). The cloud services offered by Amazon are the most profitable wing of the company. Amazon has been silently building up the tech capabilities of the platform. It is one of the most flexible, scalable cloud services available right now. Amazon has managed to outmaneuver industry heavyweights such as Google and Microsoft with its AWS platform.