Amazon Expands Grocery Service

Amazon.com Inc is add more territory to its online grocery delivery program to Brooklyn’s well-heeled Park Slope neighborhood, giving the No. 1 U.S. online retailer a foothold in one of the wealthiest and densest markets in the United States.

The AmazonFresh program, which offers same-day or next-day delivery on more than 500,000 items including fresh and frozen groceries, will soon expand to other areas in Brooklyn.

The move is part of Amazon’s slow build-out of its “Fresh” program, targeting one of the largest retail sectors yet to be upended by online commerce. Amazon declined to say if it will expand to Manhattan or other parts of the New York metro area.

“Currently, we are offering AmazonFresh in Brooklyn and will continue being thoughtful and methodical in our expansion,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Groceries have proven to be one of the toughest sectors for technology companies to manage, and Amazon faces competition from established companies like FreshDirect as well as fast-growing startups like Instacart.

But a successful foray in Park Slope could help Amazon cement customer loyalty and boost sales, especially among wealthy and middle-class families, analysts have said.

The top 10 to 20 percent of wealthiest Americans spend between 3 and 4 times more on food than the average American family, according to Bill Bishop, chief architect at Brick Meets Click, a consulting firm focused on retail technology.

“They are the sweetest of shoppers so anybody who attracts that business is taking the cream of the market,” Bishop said.

Amazon could also use its Fresh program to experiment with its own delivery service, analysts have said.

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Mozilla Delays Touch Browser

Mozilla has again delayed the release date for a touch-enabled version of Firefox that will run in Windows 8′s “Modern” user interface (UI), with the new target in mid-March.

Ship estimates for the browser have been fluid, to put it mildly. In August, the open-source developer pegged December 2013 as the target for the “Metro-ized” version of Firefox. In September, Mozilla said it was hoping to bundle Firefox Metro with the Windows edition of Firefox 27, slated for release on Feb. 4.

Metro was the name Microsoft once applied to the radical UI of Windows 8, but the company ditched the moniker in 2012 over a trademark dispute with a German retailer.

The newest information from Mozilla, however, has tapped March 18, when Firefox 28 is to ship, as the projected release of the browser.

Although a preview of Firefox Metro was bundled with the Aurora build of Firefox more than three months ago — and is currently in Aurora for Firefox 28 — it has not yet been promoted to the next channel, Beta, which is the precursor to Release. Mozilla has set a Jan. 31 deadline for deciding whether the touch browser is ready to add to Firefox 28 Beta.

Mozilla started work on a Metro edition of Firefox in March 2012. It shipped a rough preview in October 2012, several weeks before Microsoft launched Windows 8. At that time, Mozilla’s schedule said the Firefox app might appear as early as January 2013. In May 2013, however, the company said its developers would complete Firefox for Modern between Oct. 2, 2013, and March 20, 2014, with mid-November the likeliest date.

If Mozilla makes the targeted March 18 release, it will have spent two years crafting the browser, which will have shipped 17 months after the retail debut of Windows 8.

Although Mozilla has said it’s important that it have a Metro-ready browser to remain competitive — and Windows 8′s and Windows 8.1′s user share has climbed above the 10% mark– it’s unclear what percentage of those PC and tablet owners spend serious time in the UI, as opposed to the traditional Windows desktop.

Mozilla is also discussing a name for the browser, which was code named “Firefox Metro” during development and later was saddled with the label “Windows 8-style Firefox.”

One suggestion, forwarded by a Mozilla user experience designer, has been “Firefox Touch,” which got nods of approval from others in a Mozilla planning message forum.

“‘Windows 8-style Firefox’ is too long and already doesn’t make perfect sense with Windows 8.1 released, but will make less sense when Windows 9 comes out,” noted Brian Bondy, a Firefox platform engineer who has led the work on the Metro version. “I like Firefox Touch and I think we should go with that. It’s a product designed above all else for touch.”

Some, however, objected to labeling the browser as “Firefox Touch,” pointing out that that would downplay the Android browser Mozilla maintains, which is also touch-enabled.

“I agree with Jim that it should be simply Firefox, and that differentiation happens at the point of download,” countered Peter Scanlon, Mozilla’s acting chief marketing officer, in another message to the same discussion forum.

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