STAY IN YOUR PRIME...
Amazon’s bundle of service’s is well worth €100 a year
Amazon Prime From €9.30 per month ★★★★★
Amazon is one of the world’s great tech companies and yet it’s increasingly difficult to define exactly what their main business is any more. The company that started life as an online bookseller now ships groceries, gadgets and clothes all over the world. They make TV shows, audio books and their hi-tech cloud service powers a huge swathe of the internet.
One of their key offerings is Amazon Prime. Available in Ireland for some time now, it’s a bundle of some of the key Amazon services, for a monthly fee. In Ireland, however, we don’t get the full Prime offering and I tried the free-trial to see if it’s worth the €100 per year.
One of the key elements for Irish subscribers is the free, two-day delivery. I buy books and gadgets frequently from Amazon, and shipping costs can add up. As a result, I found myself creating lists of books and gadgets that would add up to enough to entitle me to free shipping.
However, once you see the Prime logo beside your purchase you know that it will be shipped for free. As a result, I find myself buying more regularly. If you’re a regular buyer from Amazon this is a big deal, and one that saves you money over a year.
Amazon also have films, drama and documentaries as part of the Prime deal. While the Video content isn’t as broad or deep as Netflix, the content is decent and of a high quality. For instance, the dystopian and brilliant Mr Robot is captivating and The Grand Tour with Jeremy Clarkson may be the reason many subscribed to Prime initially.
In the UK, Prime members get access to a slimmed down Amazon Music, but that isn’t available to us. However, there is a price reduction
for the full Prime Music with 40 million songs if you are a member.
There’s a subscription Twitch Premium included. Twitch is a platform where you can watch gamers play games and it’s incredibly popular with millions of viewers.
While anyone over 30 may be stumped about why Twitch is a big deal, if there are youngsters in the house, they’ll probably get value by watching Fortnite experts late into the night.
Two nice extras included are Photos and Reading. Photos gives you unlimited photo storage using the Amazon Drive. This is a really nice feature in an era when many tech companies are charging for annual storage. However, think about it before you commit to it as once you sign up you’ll need to remain a Prime member or else you’d have to move or download all your photos if you end your membership. Reading is an excellent part of the package. This is essentially a lending library and there’s fiction, non-fiction and children’s books included. Also, you don’t need a Kindle to read the books you borrow as there are apps for iOS and Android. As my free-trial approached, I thought hard about renewing it, and ultimately I did. While we don’t get the one-day delivery, Amazon Pantry or the Music offering, it adds up to pretty good deal. I thought Prime would be attractive mostly for taking the pain out of delivery costs. Prime Video, early access to deals and Reading are really nice add-ons. Amazon have got this almost perfectly right, and I’m staying in.
ONE KEY ELEMENT IS THE FREE TWO-DAY DELIVERY