Amazon.com 2013 Annual Report Download - page 3

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recently greenlit six more originals, including Bosch, by Michael Connelly, The After, from Chris Carter of The
X-Files,Mozart in the Jungle, from Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, and Jill Soloway’s beautiful
Transparent, which some have called the best pilot in years. We like our approach and are replicating it with our
recent rollout of PIV in both the UK and Germany. The early customer response in those countries has been
terrific, surpassing our expectations.
Fire TV
Just this past week, after two years of hard work, our hardware team launched Fire TV. Not only is Fire TV
the best way to watch Amazon’s video offerings, it also embraces non-Amazon content services like Netflix,
Hulu Plus, VEVO, WatchESPN, and many more. Fire TV has big hardware specs in a category that’s previously
been hardware-light. It shows. Fire TV is fast and fluid. And our ASAP technology predicts what you might want
to watch and pre-buffers it, so shows start instantly. Our team also put a small microphone in the remote control.
Hold down the mic button on the remote, and you can speak your search term rather than type it into an alphabet
grid. The team has done a terrific job – the voice search actually works.
In addition to Prime Instant Video, Fire TV gives you instant access to over 200,000 movies and TV
episodes available a la carte, including new releases like Gravity,12 Years a Slave,Dallas Buyers Club,Frozen,
and more. As a bonus, Fire TV also lets you play high-quality, inexpensive games on your living room TV. We
hope you try it out. If you do, let us know what you think. The team would love to hear your feedback.
Amazon Game Studios
It’s early in the twenty-second century and Earth is threatened by an alien species, the Ne’ahtu.
The aliens infected Earth’s energy grid with a computer virus to disable the planet’s defenses.
Before they could strike, computer science prodigy Amy Ramanujan neutralized the alien virus
and saved the planet. Now, the Ne’ahtu are back and Dr. Ramanujan must prevent them from
launching an all-out invasion on Earth. She needs your help.
That’s how Sev Zero, the first Fire TV exclusive from Amazon Game Studios, begins. The team combined
tower defense with shooter gameplay and created a co-op mode where one player leads on the ground with their
gamepad controller while a second player provides air support from a tablet. I can assure you that there are some
intense moments when you’ll appreciate a well-timed air-strike. When you see it, you may be surprised that this
level of game play is possible on an inexpensive streaming media device. Sev Zero is only the first of a collection
of innovative and graphically beautiful games we’re building from the ground up for Fire tablets and Fire TV.
Amazon Appstore
The Amazon Appstore now serves customers in almost 200 countries. Selection has grown to include over
200,000 apps and games from top developers around the globe – nearly tripling in size over the past year. We
introduced Amazon Coins, a virtual currency that saves customers up to 10% on app and in-app purchases. Our
Whispersync for Games technology lets you start a game on one device and continue it on another without losing
your progress. Developers can use the Mobile Associates program to offer millions of physical products from
Amazon inside their apps, and earn referral fees when customers buy those items. We introduced Appstore
Developer Select, a marketing program that promotes new apps and games on Kindle Fire tablets and on
Amazon’s Mobile Ad Network. We created Analytics and A/B Testing services – free services that empower
developers to track user engagement and optimize their apps for iOS, Android, and Fire OS. Also this year, we
embraced HTML5 web app developers. They too can now offer their apps on Kindle Fire and through the
Amazon Appstore.
Spoken Word Audio
2013 was a landmark year for Audible, the world’s largest seller and producer of audiobooks. Audible
makes it possible for you to read when your eyes are busy. Millions of customers download hundreds of millions
of audiobooks and other spoken-word programming from Audible. Audible customers downloaded close to
600 million listening hours in 2013. Thanks to Audible Studios, people drive to work listening to Kate Winslet,
Colin Firth, Anne Hathaway, and many other stars. One big hit in 2013 was Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance of