Follow-up: Amazon’s big surprise: Flying drones will deliver packages to customer doorsteps
Now this is a teaser.
60 Minutes is profiling Amazon on Sunday’s show, with a behind-the-scenes look at the online retailer, pegged to the start of the holiday shopping season and next week’s now-traditional “Cyber Monday” shopping day.
But the online preview of the segment really caught our attention by promising a “big surprise” from Jeff Bezos. Charlie Rose, who interviewed the Amazon CEO in Seattle for the segment, says in the preview that Bezos kept telling them he had “something he wanted to unveil for the first time.”
Bringing Rose into a room on the Amazon campus, Bezos says, “Let me show you something.”
“Oh man,” says Rose as he walks in, then adds, “Oh my God!” as he apparently sees the surprise.
OK, so what is it? We’ve asked Amazon representatives if they can provide any additional information, and we’ll let you know what we hear back. It’s entirely possible that this is much ado about not very much. It would be particularly disappointing if, for example, Bezos just gave them the first look at something like the Kindle Fire HDX, which has since been unveiled and released.
Bezos does have a flair for dramatic unveilings during briefings with reporters. The timing of the segment is opportunistic for Amazon, with the company making Bezos available for a segment that’s airing at a time when it wants to make sure it’s on the minds of holiday shoppers.
The segment also could provide a counterpoint to a recent undercover BBC report criticizing the working conditions at Amazon warehouses, which the company has refuted denied.
At any rate, they’ve gotten our attention — we’ll be tuning in Sunday night.
Follow-up: Amazon’s big surprise: Flying drones will deliver packages to customer doorsteps
