Amazon's turn for a moonshot

Let me first try to define a moonshot. Moonshots are a new way of thinking to discover brave new worlds. (For more on the subject of new worlds, refer to Peabo here.) Its elusive champion in our present dispensation, and best known for no-holds-barred application across its own culture, is of course Google. But no, Google is not exactly alone in 10X thinking. No siree!

And so, what if a strange unmanned aircraft landed with a package on your front lawn containing Stephen King's latest novel? What if you ordered the very same bestselling item no more than 30 minutes ago over Amazon.com? What if I told you that the cake is a lie?

...

Okay, forget that last question. Today, the world's largest online retailer announced a new delivery service that will eventually complement what Amazon.com is best known for--shopping. To a surprised Charlie Rose on CBS's 60 Minutes, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos promised half his fortune if Charlie could guess what their R&D center had recently cooked up.

Octocopters: Amazon Prime Air.

What it does is exactly what you can imagine from this image: an unmanned drone that delivers ordered goods for your mom directly to your doorstep in 30 minutes. Quick question! Is 30 minutes guaranteed? Well, if pizza delivery is any indicator, it would be a shame if they didn't tease it in the same way. (In anticipation of that promise, I managed to create one of those silly marketing claims intended to grab bragging rights over things not worth bragging: Amazon Prime Air is the first flying delivery service that delivers in 30-minutes or the next book is free!) Sorry I couldn't resist.

My next act, upon discovery of this new adventure (an apt word for a stellar adventurer that is Jeff Bezos), was to scour the web and find out what everyone has to say about this interesting contraption. As it turns out, just about everyone gave the effort a big fat F. I certainly thought otherwise. A grand effort such as this is exactly the brave new world that every company should push itself into. And those who worry about operational issues this early aren't getting it at all.

Which is really why I'm blogging about this right now.

Can I push that out at another time though? I really have to get going. But hey, here's an official video (that badly needs more oomph by the way) showing the Prime Air in action.

Pessimists beware.