Amazon's New Fire HDX--Mayday and Video Downloads

I was reading about Amazon's new Fire HDX and in particular the mayday feature today--Jeff Bezos calls it a "Wow" feature. It connects users of the new Fire HDX tablet to a live tech support rep via video chat within 15 seconds (that's the goal anyway). The rep has access to the tablet and can remotely draw directions onto the screen helping users with any technical need they might have 24/7. In terms of customer service, especially for a tablet, this is a big departure from more traditional delivery methods: calls, chats even Apple's genius bar.

An article in Slate made a good point about how much having an army of live reps to support the Kindle Fire HDX would cost. And the Kindle Fire HDX is relatively inexpensive, probably being sold close to cost. Revenues though can be driven by users locked in to the Kindle Fire HDX, who with the help of friendly tech support, can now more easily download content and shop online--a strategy much like Google's--give away the device/platform and make your money from users in another way.

The new tablet is interesting also because it seems to correspond with more investment in content (Amazon's developing its own programming) and Prime. The fire HDX will let you download content from Prime, Amazon's streaming video service--it will be interesting to see how Netflix might respond.