They didn't say that Amazon "patented" the technology. They "Licensed" it. If Target wanted to roll their own shopping cart with that process they could. I think they are just paying for Amazon's expertise handling it. I could "License" a shopping cart or content management system I build to a client and have them pay me a monthly fee. I choose instead to just sell the client the code.
It's not just the shopping cart process they license, it's the active inventory system they have. It's actually a brilliant system. I think it may have just cost them too much to develop, that's why it took so long for them to turn profit. They actually started showing profit after they started "licensing" out their technology. You can build your own application server and you can use it on your own servers to run your clients apps. OR you could build one, name it something like ColdFusion and actually "License" it to other companies, and maybe get rich! Greg -----Original Message----- From: Phoeun Pha [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, September 12, 2002 11:12 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: OT: Technology? When can you call something technology? Like if I made my forms look different for each user according to their preference, is that called technology? To me it's just a few lines of coding and logic. The same thing goes with Amazon's One-Click "technology". I am sure most of us have heard of it, and can easily here's an excerpt from an article on Zdnet. "The technology behind one-click is surprisingly uncomplicated. Essentially, shoppers are agreeing to skip several of the review and confirmation steps of the buying process. Customers set up a one-click account with the address they want products shipped to and a credit card to pay for it. Newer versions allow consumers to choose from preset multiple addresses and credit cards using dropdown menus on product pages. Since then, however, Amazon has licensed the technology to other companies, and partners such as Target have made the technology available to even more shoppers." They licensed it?! I mean, sure, the idea was "great", but it wasn't some technological breakthrough...It seems as if you can every little functionality in your application a a fancy name and call it a technology. "Look! A form that let's you know if you typed in your email address wrong! What a technological breakthrough!" - And it's no more complicated than One-Click. So is the term subjective? I guess if you get enough lawyers you can call a pig a horse. ______________________________________________________________________ Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
