Get the latest tech news

Alexa Is in Millions of Households - and Amazon Is Losing Billions

Amazon's strategy to set prices low for Echo speakers and other smart devices, expecting them to generate income elsewhere in the tech giant, hasn't paid off [paywalled]. From a report: Amazon's Echo speakers are the type of business success companies don't want: a widely purchased product that is a...

Amazon's strategy to set prices low for Echo speakers and other smart devices, expecting them to generate income elsewhere in the tech giant, hasn't paid off[paywalled]. When Amazon launched the Echo smart home devices with its Alexa voice assistant in 2014, it pulled a page from shaving giant Gillette's classic playbook: sell the razors for a pittance in the hope of making heaps of money on purchases of the refill blades. While hundreds of millions of customers have Alexa-enabled devices, the idea that people would spend meaningful amounts of money to buy goods on Amazon by talking to the iconic voice assistant on the underpriced speakers didn't take off.

Get the Android app