Photo: Courtesy of Amazon.Well, it looks like Amazon is about go all Minority Report on us: The online retail giant has patented a method for what it's calling "anticipatory package shipping." Basically, it's their fancy way of saying that they plan on shipping you items they think you may want, before you actually want them.
Of course, this doesn't mean that you'll be forced to pay for the, say, Percy Jackson boxed set that suddenly appears at your doorstep. What it means is that Amazon will use its colossal inventory of customer data to predict the likelihood of you eventually purchasing any given product. Once it determines that you are, in fact, a massive Percy Jackson fan, Amazon will then ship said product to a nearby shipping center and wait for you to make the actual purchase. When you finally decide that enough is enough and purchase the boxed set, it will be mere hours away from your home.
This new initiative, coupled with their infamous drone delivery announcement earlier this year, reinforces the belief that Amazon's main focus is to make delivery times as short as possible. Which is music to our ears, because we really don't know how much longer we can go without that Percy Jackson boxed set. (Racked)