Amazon Online Coming Your Way

Online retailer Amazon is ready to unveil the Amazon Video on Demand: a new online outlet focusing on television and movies. It is potential competition for local video stores and promises to keep couch potatoes firmly planted in place.

The intial content selection will include over 40,000 options. Once an option is selected, it can be played right away since the content will simply be streamed to the consumer. This is a shift from Amazon's original strategy as well as the Apple iTunes' current strategy which requires users to download the content file in its entirety before they can view it. Amazon hopes this sense of instant gratification will give its service a critical edge over rivals.

Amazon is also pursuing a strategy to establish an Internet pipeline with televisions. A promising deal involves Sony and the linking of the Internet video store to the Sony Bravia line of high definition TVs.

Amazon has been able to forge deals with most of the prominent content providers barring ABC and Walt Disney which remain loyal to Apple.