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Product/Market Fit, huh? We have at least 8 Echos around the house, with clear reasons for a couple more, but Amazon simply isn't interested in the actual prob

Product/Market Fit, huh? We have at least 8 Echos around the house, with clear reasons for a couple more, but Amazon simply isn't interested in the actual problems that the product solves, or the use cases customers care about. They're completely backwards, here. If that means the whole thing collapses and we have to find another solution, great. Products and companies who work this way need more failures.

noodle 4y ago
Same. I think the article's title lays it out well. "Amazon's Big Dreams". Amazon wanted to do a specific set of things w/ Alexa and they've found that the market doesn't want any of that. I'll never buy something through my Alexa, for example. What it could/should have been is the end cap for the Amazon brand in homes. A loss leader itself, but a constant reminder of the value of the company and the desire to keep spending money there due to the convenience it provides. What the article makes it sound like they want is something more tangible. Something that quantitatively generates direct ROI. They'll never get that, or rather, that number will never add up to one that justifies Alexa's existence.
vanilla_nut 4y ago
An exercise in perverse incentives. It seemed clear to me from the start that Alexa devices were a Trojan Horse to insert Amazon dependence and ads into real-world situations like writing a grocery list or cooking a meal. Similarly, it's clear that Google's search is a Trojan Horse (at this point) to sell more ads. Folks need to be discerning with tech purchases. If it isn't in a company's interest to make your experience better (and it is in the company's interest to make your experience worse, say, with ads) when push comes to shove they will prioritize profits over your customer experience. Instead of investing in rotten platforms like Alexa, I wish more people invested in open source and non-exploitative solutions where the incentives align to improve user experience, not destroy it. Imagine a world where you could self-host or pay a small fee to cloud host your own smart assistant, tweaked to your preferences, not in any way linked into ad sales for Amazon or Google. That's where I'd like to see us go.
skellera 4y ago
Amazon hasn’t been “customer obsessed” in years. The leadership there is “promotion obsessed.” Bloated management with too many empire builders. Make big flashy features with no real need or something that optimizes for short term target numbers. Working backwards from the customer is never a thing anymore. This is why terrible decisions like 3rd party sellers (diminishing Amazon’s trust while increasing profits) will continue to happen. AWS and their massive logistics platform will support this terrible management for awhile but it will continue to destroy the brand.
dragontamer 4y ago
Because the $30+ Billion they spent on voice recognition research won't make itself back if you only use Alexa as a voice kitchen timer or glorified radio / Spotify station.

noodle 4y ago

Same. I think the article's title lays it out well. "Amazon's Big Dreams". Amazon wanted to do a specific set of things w/ Alexa and they've found that the market doesn't want any of that. I'll never buy something through my Alexa, for example. What it could/should have been is the end cap for the Amazon brand in homes. A loss leader itself, but a constant reminder of the value of the company and the desire to keep spending money there due to the convenience it provides. What the article makes it sound like they want is something more tangible. Something that quantitatively generates direct ROI. They'll never get that, or rather, that number will never add up to one that justifies Alexa's existence.

vanilla_nut 4y ago

An exercise in perverse incentives. It seemed clear to me from the start that Alexa devices were a Trojan Horse to insert Amazon dependence and ads into real-world situations like writing a grocery list or cooking a meal. Similarly, it's clear that Google's search is a Trojan Horse (at this point) to sell more ads. Folks need to be discerning with tech purchases. If it isn't in a company's interest to make your experience better (and it is in the company's interest to make your experience worse, say, with ads) when push comes to shove they will prioritize profits over your customer experience. Instead of investing in rotten platforms like Alexa, I wish more people invested in open source and non-exploitative solutions where the incentives align to improve user experience, not destroy it. Imagine a world where you could self-host or pay a small fee to cloud host your own smart assistant, tweaked to your preferences, not in any way linked into ad sales for Amazon or Google. That's where I'd like to see us go.

skellera 4y ago

Amazon hasn’t been “customer obsessed” in years. The leadership there is “promotion obsessed.” Bloated management with too many empire builders. Make big flashy features with no real need or something that optimizes for short term target numbers. Working backwards from the customer is never a thing anymore. This is why terrible decisions like 3rd party sellers (diminishing Amazon’s trust while increasing profits) will continue to happen. AWS and their massive logistics platform will support this terrible management for awhile but it will continue to destroy the brand.

dragontamer 4y ago

Because the $30+ Billion they spent on voice recognition research won't make itself back if you only use Alexa as a voice kitchen timer or glorified radio / Spotify station.