Hype or no hype? Analysts divided on Bezos’ drones

Critics are divided over Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo’s unveiling of a plan to use drones to deliver packages in the future. The Guardian’s James Ball called it “hot air and baloney” and “an old PR tactic.”  He says the technology to make the drones operational in any sense is not yet in place. He asked, “How does it then find the package’s intended recipient? How is the transfer of the package enacted? What stops someone else stealing the package along the way? And what happens when next door’s kid decides to shoot the drone with his BB rifle?” Wall Street Journal’s Farhad Manjoo, on the other hand applauded Bezos for proposing new, friendlier uses for drones, saying unmanned aerial vehicles don’t deserve the bad rep after being identified with military surveillance. Manjoo said, first, the plan got everyone talking about Amazon, second, it gave investors a taste of the scope of Amazon’s investment plans and three, cemented Bezos’s image as the biggest thinker in tech, even if the idea is “implausible.”

Read the full story on Guardian and WSJ.