Article is off base. Telling corporations to think about profit is like telling someone to think about breathing. It's always in Corporation's mind to think of profits. What differs here is the strategy. Profit in the long term compared to profit in the short term.

Apple is in a unique position to achieve one without compromising the other. But Amazon is not in that position. Majority of their business is reselling products, they need to make sure their platform is best at reselling products. Kindles are not the products they're selling, it is a platform they're using to sell products.

So, they're investing in platforms that will keep users loyal to the company and be a preferred destination for buying things. One can always analyze if this strategy is good for it's intended purpose or not, but that analysis is no part of the article. Discussion on this strategy is worthwhile.

Comparison with Walmart, to some extent, is fair. But brick and mortar sellers face very different challenges than the virtual shopping platform like Amazon.

EDIT: By "reselling product" I meant to convey "selling other people's products". Not the best choice of words.