The online retail and marketing behemoth, Amazon.com has started a new $7.99 a month service called Amazon Prime, a service mainly to compete directly with Netflix Instant, and to some extent with Hulu and iTunes, and to provide other services. Netflix charges $7.99 a month (a limited plan for $4.99) for its unlimited streaming video service. Amazon Prime who charged $79 a year recently changed it to $7.99 a month on any number of devices including TV, iPad, Android smartphone or a PC to directly competing with Netflix. Netflix has more movies and TV shows than Amazon Prime, but Amazon Prime provides free two-day shipping of Amazon purchases for you and two other family members and selected title rentals for Kindle for free in the U.S.
The new move is sure to bring more customers to Amazon Prime and to Amazon.com. A monthly pay-as-you-go is much better than up front once a year payment it charged before. The move could also jump the holiday sales for Amazon.com. Bundling services may attract new customers and could be a reason for current customers to stick around. My only concern is that its video content is not rich as other competitors.