I'll echo that gripe. Amazon have hobbled their ecosystem by the bizarre design decision of mandatory configuration by US zip code. This effectively excludes

I'll echo that gripe. Amazon have hobbled their ecosystem by the bizarre design decision of mandatory configuration by US zip code. This effectively excludes all non-American users, and makes the barriers for overseas developers prohibitively high. Since I am in Australia, my Echo is good only for parlour tricks and streaming audio: without an accurate time and place, even simple things like checking weather are impossible. Forget about booking a cab, or home automation. So I have not tried to develop for the platform, because I do not develop things I cannot test. Perhaps Amazon were afraid of diluting their product focus. But failure to think globally means your product cannot be a world leader.