It’s straight out of science fiction chapter. Drones picking up our orders and sending them to our doorstep. Who wouldn’t want that to happen? Run out of sauces and beers during a party? Log on to Amazon, pick the items you want and the flying robot will be on its way to your house, in 30 minutes or less.
Honestly, admist the hype surrounding the news, I have more questions than hope, more sceptical than optimism. The timing of the news came on the typically crazy cyber monday where people are actively doing shoppings, with retailers slashing and engaging in annual price wars.
I would say the press release was strategically timed to disrupt the market, enough to make people sit up and take notice. It’s such a novel idea that’s possibly too far fetched for the foreseeable future, but that wouldn’t stop most people from speculating on what it might bring to us.
It’s a massive exposure in the context where companies, especially e-retailers are competing for shoppers’ limited attention span. Bringing this piece of much hyped news to people means the brand Amazon is being shoved in their faces. Out of these people how many of them would spread the news, talk about them and in turn, go to their website and eventually purchase something from them.
Besides, the capabilities of these drones and how they overcome the hurdles will be interesting. They have a good half decade at least to work on, refine and test them out. Meanwhile, I supposed this has been a good week of positive PR for Amazon.