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Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons lea

Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they're throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in. I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice controlled speaker. Give them a remote! Now, give them a voice-controlled camera! Now, give them a voice-controlled screen! Soon, give them <insert novel sensor> and let them go hands free! Rinse-repeat.

sumoboy 9y ago
This is something expected that should have been expected from Apple, not Amazon when it comes to innovative gadgets. Amazon really learned there lesson with phones so create a new market instead of competing in a saturated one. Google can't be far behind. With a screen now, it's like my own personal drive-thru to order whatever, products, food, whatever amazon is selling.
prklmn 9y ago
churn out as much crap as possible and see what sticks!
anonymousthx 9y ago
They started working on this late 2014 / early 2015. Work started on Look in late 2015. Source: ;)
- mholmes680 9y ago
  Awesome. Now, one more thing: Echo Car. I dunno why, i just want Alexa in my car. She's already in 4 rooms in my house (no wait, 5 including Fire Stick? 7 including the Kindles?), and in my pocket.
  - thinkling 9y ago
    A bit off-topic, but: is Amazon the only company with substantial machine learning talent that doesn't seem to be working on a self-driving car? Are the people who would be doing that busy developing Amazon's drones?
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - extrapickles 9y ago
      I would think so. Self driving cars don't align well with what they are trying to do and everyone and their dog is working in that space, so margins will be slim. Drones let them ship things much faster to customers for cheaper than existing techniques and its easy to see how that helps their business. Margins of existing players in this space are typically much higher, which is something Amazon likes to go after (just look at pre-AWS hosting costs).
    - karthkk 9y ago
      I would not be surprised if they are working on consumer robots too. They are probably way ahead already in their deployment of warehouse robots.
    - mholmes680 9y ago
      maybe they just see self-driving as D.O.A right now. Or simply, lower priority? Maybe they're just better at keeping it a secret (given the parent comment by the throwaway id). If Amazon can figure out a way to get self-driving car aligned with a) Alexa, b) logistics, c) prime membership, and/or d) driving shopping to their marketplace - then they are obviously working on it. Or maybe, typical Amazon, they're already working on Amazon Engine, in parallel with Amazon Wheels, in parallel with Amazon Windshield, and Amazon Steering Wheel, and we'll have something that can be used as a car in a few years.
  - sib 9y ago
    Alexa is coming to cars (at least from Ford): https://www.geekwire.com/2017/ford-turning-cars-amazon-alexa-devices-starting-month/ https://www.geekwire.com/2017/ford-turning-cars-amazon-alexa...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- alttab 9y ago
  you created this account just to tell us that? Was it worth it?
  - stepanhruda 9y ago
    I appreciated it
sib 9y ago
While the time between the launch of the Echo Look and the Echo Show was only a couple of weeks, it's not the case that it only took two weeks to spin up the Echo Show. These teams work in parallel for long periods of time; years in most cases.
- miranda_rights 9y ago
  I'm kind of confused as to why the Look and Show were developed/released in parallel. They're at similar price points and it looks like the Show could do anything that the Look could do, so why have them as separate projects?
  - sib 9y ago
    Just a few thoughts: Presumably, people are less likely to spend as much time in their closets as in a kitchen or office, so they probably wouldn't use the full suite of Show capabilities there as much. The scale of the Show is probably too large to look good on a small dressing table or side table; whereas space may be at less of a premium in the kitchen, living room, or office. The Look is a much prettier / cleaner / more modern design, which fits better in the intended use case of a "style assistant" - you have to associate style help with someone whose own sense of style is good. Look is much cheaper to manufacture: missing the big screen and the relatively large speakers (and the amplification circuitry to drive them). If you needed one device to satisfy both use cases as well as they each do their own, you'd have to have all the cameras of the Look plus the screen and speakers, etc., of the Show, meaning the price would probably end up more like $299, which is a big difference in the world of consumer electronics. Amazon likes team to have independence and ownership of their own roadmaps and destinies. If the Look team is closely aligned with the Apparel category and reliant on a bunch of visual processing algorithms, that might be completely different from the Show team's needs and dependence on two-way communications and messaging platforms.
    - miranda_rights 9y ago
      Those are really good points -- the design aspects occurred to me as well but not enough to see the difference. That's also really cool about team independence at Amazon. It seems like it'd be a good way to combat people feeling lost in a big company. Thanks for writing up your thoughts!
orky56 9y ago
Amazon has been in the hardware game for awhile now with the various Kindle devices. They entered that market, deployed enough SKUs to satisfy nearly everyone out there, and started shifting outside the e-reader product to tablets, etc. Apple is the juggernaut and is likely to overthink its product offerings and how it affects the ecosystem of existing devices. Just like the Kindle, Amazon is ready to flood the market with SKUs to see what sticks. They're building their brand in hardware very quickly and leading the market with the strongest connected home ecosystem.
- dmix 9y ago
  > Amazon is ready to flood the market with SKUs to see what sticks This seems to be the case, they are taking a short release cycle iterative approach to get it into the customers hands fast. Very lean-startup-esque. Apple on the other hand is more of a luxury brand. The dynamics with luxury brands is a bit different and high-end product development is more involved. Customer retention and brand consistency is critical to their business. And given their track record and ability to attract talent they don't seem to have much of an issue with doing a yearly waterfall-esque style release. I'm not sure it makes sense for them to push out a high volume of products. They seemed to operate best when they had a few focused offerings in each category. If they want to expand they should hit new markets instead of flooding one with lots of options (which seems to be the way Tim is going). But otherwise I agree, Apple tends to pigeonhole their 'ecosystem' into everything, which smells of valuing internal business goal instead of consumer values.
- thinkling 9y ago
  > Amazon has been in the hardware game for awhile now with the various Kindle devices. Not just the Kindle devices, but also a growing range of Amazon Basics store-brand products, including batteries, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, paper shredders, towels and sheets, yoga mats, ... the list goes on and on. While many are undoubtedly existing products with the Amazon name stamped on them, Amazon has generally been building a lot of experience working with suppliers/manufacturers. See: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics/ https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics/

sumoboy 9y ago

This is something expected that should have been expected from Apple, not Amazon when it comes to innovative gadgets. Amazon really learned there lesson with phones so create a new market instead of competing in a saturated one. Google can't be far behind. With a screen now, it's like my own personal drive-thru to order whatever, products, food, whatever amazon is selling.

prklmn 9y ago

churn out as much crap as possible and see what sticks!

anonymousthx 9y ago

They started working on this late 2014 / early 2015. Work started on Look in late 2015. Source: ;)

mholmes680 9y ago
Awesome. Now, one more thing: Echo Car. I dunno why, i just want Alexa in my car. She's already in 4 rooms in my house (no wait, 5 including Fire Stick? 7 including the Kindles?), and in my pocket.
- thinkling 9y ago
  A bit off-topic, but: is Amazon the only company with substantial machine learning talent that doesn't seem to be working on a self-driving car? Are the people who would be doing that busy developing Amazon's drones?
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - extrapickles 9y ago
    I would think so. Self driving cars don't align well with what they are trying to do and everyone and their dog is working in that space, so margins will be slim. Drones let them ship things much faster to customers for cheaper than existing techniques and its easy to see how that helps their business. Margins of existing players in this space are typically much higher, which is something Amazon likes to go after (just look at pre-AWS hosting costs).
  - karthkk 9y ago
    I would not be surprised if they are working on consumer robots too. They are probably way ahead already in their deployment of warehouse robots.
  - mholmes680 9y ago
    maybe they just see self-driving as D.O.A right now. Or simply, lower priority? Maybe they're just better at keeping it a secret (given the parent comment by the throwaway id). If Amazon can figure out a way to get self-driving car aligned with a) Alexa, b) logistics, c) prime membership, and/or d) driving shopping to their marketplace - then they are obviously working on it. Or maybe, typical Amazon, they're already working on Amazon Engine, in parallel with Amazon Wheels, in parallel with Amazon Windshield, and Amazon Steering Wheel, and we'll have something that can be used as a car in a few years.
- sib 9y ago
  Alexa is coming to cars (at least from Ford): https://www.geekwire.com/2017/ford-turning-cars-amazon-alexa-devices-starting-month/ https://www.geekwire.com/2017/ford-turning-cars-amazon-alexa...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
alttab 9y ago
you created this account just to tell us that? Was it worth it?
- stepanhruda 9y ago
  I appreciated it

sib 9y ago

While the time between the launch of the Echo Look and the Echo Show was only a couple of weeks, it's not the case that it only took two weeks to spin up the Echo Show. These teams work in parallel for long periods of time; years in most cases.

miranda_rights 9y ago
I'm kind of confused as to why the Look and Show were developed/released in parallel. They're at similar price points and it looks like the Show could do anything that the Look could do, so why have them as separate projects?
- sib 9y ago
  Just a few thoughts: Presumably, people are less likely to spend as much time in their closets as in a kitchen or office, so they probably wouldn't use the full suite of Show capabilities there as much. The scale of the Show is probably too large to look good on a small dressing table or side table; whereas space may be at less of a premium in the kitchen, living room, or office. The Look is a much prettier / cleaner / more modern design, which fits better in the intended use case of a "style assistant" - you have to associate style help with someone whose own sense of style is good. Look is much cheaper to manufacture: missing the big screen and the relatively large speakers (and the amplification circuitry to drive them). If you needed one device to satisfy both use cases as well as they each do their own, you'd have to have all the cameras of the Look plus the screen and speakers, etc., of the Show, meaning the price would probably end up more like $299, which is a big difference in the world of consumer electronics. Amazon likes team to have independence and ownership of their own roadmaps and destinies. If the Look team is closely aligned with the Apparel category and reliant on a bunch of visual processing algorithms, that might be completely different from the Show team's needs and dependence on two-way communications and messaging platforms.
  - miranda_rights 9y ago
    Those are really good points -- the design aspects occurred to me as well but not enough to see the difference. That's also really cool about team independence at Amazon. It seems like it'd be a good way to combat people feeling lost in a big company. Thanks for writing up your thoughts!

orky56 9y ago

Amazon has been in the hardware game for awhile now with the various Kindle devices. They entered that market, deployed enough SKUs to satisfy nearly everyone out there, and started shifting outside the e-reader product to tablets, etc. Apple is the juggernaut and is likely to overthink its product offerings and how it affects the ecosystem of existing devices. Just like the Kindle, Amazon is ready to flood the market with SKUs to see what sticks. They're building their brand in hardware very quickly and leading the market with the strongest connected home ecosystem.

dmix 9y ago
> Amazon is ready to flood the market with SKUs to see what sticks This seems to be the case, they are taking a short release cycle iterative approach to get it into the customers hands fast. Very lean-startup-esque. Apple on the other hand is more of a luxury brand. The dynamics with luxury brands is a bit different and high-end product development is more involved. Customer retention and brand consistency is critical to their business. And given their track record and ability to attract talent they don't seem to have much of an issue with doing a yearly waterfall-esque style release. I'm not sure it makes sense for them to push out a high volume of products. They seemed to operate best when they had a few focused offerings in each category. If they want to expand they should hit new markets instead of flooding one with lots of options (which seems to be the way Tim is going). But otherwise I agree, Apple tends to pigeonhole their 'ecosystem' into everything, which smells of valuing internal business goal instead of consumer values.
thinkling 9y ago
> Amazon has been in the hardware game for awhile now with the various Kindle devices. Not just the Kindle devices, but also a growing range of Amazon Basics store-brand products, including batteries, headphones, Bluetooth speakers, paper shredders, towels and sheets, yoga mats, ... the list goes on and on. While many are undoubtedly existing products with the Amazon name stamped on them, Amazon has generally been building a lot of experience working with suppliers/manufacturers. See: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics/ https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics/