Amazon Crosses Milestone that Apple, Samsung and Netflix Can't Beat

Amazon AMZN has achieved a new milestone that can never be topped by any of its competitors, including Apple AAPL, Samsung, Netflix NFLX, and Hulu. This morning the online retail giant announced that the Prime Free Two-Day Shipping option -- a key feature of Amazon Prime, the company's popular shipping service -- is now used more frequently than its standard Free Super Saving Shipping option that is available to all customers. "Since Amazon launched in 1995, we've been focused on growing selection for our customers. Following the introduction of Amazon Prime in 2005, we've worked hard to grow Prime selection as well," Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, said in a company release. "We're incredibly proud to be able to offer more than 15 million Prime items today. We've also grown the Prime Instant Video library to more than 22,000 movies and TV episodes, all with unlimited streaming, and Prime members can borrow more than 180,000 books for free, with no due dates, using the Kindle Owners' Lending Library – that's up from roughly 5,000 when the program launched less than a year ago. Even seven years later, the price of Prime remains unchanged at $79 a year. Amazon Prime is the best bargain in the history of shopping, and it's going to keep getting better." More than 15 million unique items can now be purchased with Prime Free Two-Day Shipping. Not surprisingly, Amazon's own products -- the Kindle Fire, $79 Kindle, and the Kindle Touch -- are the top three items purchased with the prime shipping option. The first book in the "Fifty Shades of Gray" series came in at number four. Amazon also said that in any given week, 96.4 percent of the entire Prime Instant Video catalog is viewed by Prime subscribers. Downton Abbey is currently the number-one show, while the 2009 version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is the number-one film. The Hunger Games leads the Kindle Owners' Lending Library as the most borrowed book since the service was launched in November 2011. Follow me @LouisBedigianBZ