HomeKit Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year

[Tagbert]

While many will complain about Siri and say that it should be more like Alexa, it does not appear that Amazon is all that pleased with Alexa. Perhaps this is why Apple has not invested more into Siri?

Amazon Alexa is a “colossal failure,” on pace to lose $10 billion this year

Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company's biggest money loser.

arstechnica.com

 

[Canyda]

Someone needs to write a Star Trek parody where Computer plays an ad before responding to every voice command.

 

[Tagbert]

I’d like to know what Amazon has been spending $10B per year on!!

 

[fatTribble]

Someone needs to write a Star Trek parody where Computer plays an ad before responding to every voice command.

You had me at Star Trek. Would love to see Majel Barrett as a voice option 🥰

 

[fatTribble]

I’d like to know what Amazon has been spending $10B per year on!!

Maybe they employ a million people to respond to Alexa requests 🤪🤭

 

[w5jck]

You guys should probably read the article rather than make incorrect assumptions. For example:

The report says that while Alexa's Echo line is among the "best-selling items on Amazon, most of the devices sold at cost." One internal document described the business model by saying, "We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices."

Alexa is way more capable than the POS called Siri. But the Amazon people didn’t know what to do with it and misjudged the market in a huge way. Not bad hardware, just idiotic management.

 

[Tagbert]

You guys should probably read the article rather than make incorrect assumptions. For example:


Alexa is way more capable than the POS called Siri. But the Amazon people didn’t know what to do with it and misjudged the market in a huge way. Not bad hardware, just idiotic management.

I think that we always assumed that Amazon sold those things at cost. Still curious where the rest of the annual expenses come from.

 

[satcomer]

I tend to think people might sick of Alexa ordering things if you speak about a product especially for the Holidays!

 

[Kierkegaarden]

That is a colossal failure. I think a big difference between Siri and Alexa is the level of privacy. Maybe the long play for Alexa was to collect as much data from users by selling hardware at cost? Apple has been cautious in this category, and maybe that is because they don’t see the potential for growth like other categories. It also seems to be getting quite saturated, and maybe users prefer to use AirPods rather than a speaker.

 

[Abazigal]

Well, I guess that vindicates Apple’s decision to not compete in this space.

 

[JapanApple]

there is a big difference between Siri and Alexa. I use Alexa devices.......... I am happy with their functionality. saying it's a failure far from what the negative people are crying about. Having a background in interior design integration of environments and users in homes and offices. I will say AI s still dev reaching new and exciting levels. Look at the scale of the number of Alexa devices in the wild; you will say apple doesn't have momentum in this area at this moment.

 

[Eric Idle]

Siri is indeed a POS. An epic fail from Apple.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I think that we always assumed that Amazon sold those things at cost. Still curious where the rest of the annual expenses come from.

I don’t think they are even selling them at cost. I think the sub £100/$100 devices are sold at a loss, considering that they are always on sale.

Perhaps the more expensive devices I.e the echo show 10, 15, studio etc are making a profit.

I think the problem is that when they sell these devices at a loss they are hoping that people will invest in their services.

I love the echo devices, have 6 in use and 2 still in a box, bought on sale and haven’t worked out a use case for them yet lol

I did buy the echo show 15 at full retail price but all the others were bought on sale. I am a prime subscriber but I do not subscribe to Amazon music. No intentions of doing that when I can use my Apple Music subscription on them if I wanted to listen to music on them. However I have HomePods for listening to music.

 

[Shanghaichica]

That is a colossal failure. I think a big difference between Siri and Alexa is the level of privacy. Maybe the long play for Alexa was to collect as much data from users by selling hardware at cost? Apple has been cautious in this category, and maybe that is because they don’t see the potential for growth like other categories. It also seems to be getting quite saturated, and maybe users prefer to use AirPods rather than a speaker.

I think HomePods and echos are quite different products. The HomePods are speakers first which also have voice assistant capabilities and can also be used for smart home control. The echo devices are voice assistant first and speakers second. Amazon’s strategy was to sell them below cost and flood the market with them in the hope they could sell services and other products to them down the line via advertising. Apple were only interested in making profit from selling hardware.

There is a market for people that are willing to pay more to get a better quality speaker but this is rather small. Most people don’t care. They are happy to listen music through phone speakers or on their laptops or TVs. I would say there are people that buy echo devices for a use case e.g smart home control but most buy them on a whim when they are on sale. Amazon have flooded the market with them and they are probably running out of novelty buyers to sell to.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I tend to think people might sick of Alexa ordering things if you speak about a product especially for the Holidays!

You just need to set a passcode to protect purchased. My echo’s have never ordered anything that I didn’t actively ask them to order.