Audio Video News

Amazon’s retail dominance, video distribution, and voice control—among other things—have been in the news lately.

Perhaps the biggest news is that Amazon is now the world’s second largest consumer electronics retailer, surpassing Walmart, according to the annual retail report from This Week in Consumer Electronics. The online giant lured consumers with its own Fire and Kindle devices, the two-day delivery and other goodies of Amazon Prime, competitive pricing, and superior customer service to take 28.1 percent of CE sales with $23.1 billion in sales.

Further proof of Amazon’s CE supremacy comes from market consulting firm Walker Sands, which says 70 percent of shoppers have bought CE products from Amazon or its affiliates. Brick-and-mortar stores came in a distant second at 51 percent, while 17 percent ordered from manufacturer websites, and 9 percent bought no CE products.

The online giant’s most noteworthy new initiative is Amazon Video Direct, which lets you upload videos for sharing. Take that, YouTube! However, Amazon is competing only within its own ecosystem—the new service is for Prime subscribers only and works only with Amazon Video–compatible devices and browsers.

Amazon’s Alexa voice control is adding features. It now extends to picking streaming content, finding theatrical movie show times, and searching for local businesses and restaurants. Available on Fire TV boxes and Fire Sticks, it already feeds you news, weather reports, music, and other stuff upon voice command.

Here TV is a subscription streaming service for Amazon Prime subscribers at $7.99/month over the basic cost of Prime. Offerings include a variety of small films plus an original comedy series, From Here on Out.

However, Amazon and Netflix are hitting choppy waters in Europe. The European Union is requiring that at least 20 percent of streaming video content originates in Europe.