[jimmrf]

Agreed and especially like your points around expert markets about the executives' radar.

Just a to build a bit on the pricing point: Outside of perfect competition, price is not determined by the market. It is determined by executive or committee or some agent of a company subject to the market, specifically 1) observed and expected competitors' prices and 2) the company's estimate of the demand curve composed of all possible customers & workloads.

[exelius]

Right; I meant only that cost has no bearing on the price set by the company. The two things you mentioned (competitive landscape and demand forecasts) are both ways of measuring the market.

Marginal cost only plays into the equation when the marginal cost of the product is higher than the maximum price/pricing structure the market is willing to bear over the time horizon you're considering. Amazon just has a longer time horizon than most companies.