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Makes me a little sad.. It's been almost 3 years since Amazon bought Kiva.. no improvements to the tech, and they seem to have just locked up the tech for thems
by rgbrenner 12y ago
Makes me a little sad.. It's been almost 3 years since Amazon bought Kiva.. no improvements to the tech, and they seem to have just locked up the tech for themselves.
Before Amazon, Kiva was growing at 130%/year and had over $100m/year in revenue.
Hope Amazon eventually starts selling these again.. could really change fulfillment. But not so optimistic.. considering that would be walmart.com and other amazon competitors.
- Qworg 12y agoAmazon doesn't want to sell them - Amazon offers fulfillment as a service. It is a definitive competitive advantage. That said, it may also be a great startup (tech companies certainly want, most technology issues solved, etc).
- swalsh 12y agoI interviewed at Kiva a few years ago, and asked about this kind of. The reply I got was that they will continue to support existing customers (besides Amazon) but don't have plans to bring anyone new on board.
- jackgavigan 12y agoStarbucks did something similar with Clover.
- georgeott 12y agoHow difficult would it be for another robot company to build similar technology? Patents are also most likely an issue.
- rgbrenner 12y agoNot sure how hard it would be to copy Kiva.. but there's one other competitor: swisslog autostore http://www.swisslog.com/en/Products/WDS/Storage-Systems/AutoStore http://www.swisslog.com/en/Products/WDS/Storage-Systems/Auto...
- rgbrenner 12y agoI completely overlooked this.. they have a product that is nearly identical to Kiva: http://www.swisslog.com/Products/WDS/Storage-Systems/CarryPick http://www.swisslog.com/Products/WDS/Storage-Systems/CarryPi...