A long-term strategy to retain customers and continue to buy products in the Amazon ecosystem.
Editor’s note: This article is from “Tencent Technology“, review: Cheng Hey.
The voice assistant represented by Google Assistant, Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa has become a hotspot of technology nowadays. More and more external software and hardware products are being embedded with voice assistants, allowing consumers to easily control their devices with their own voices. .
According to the latest news from foreign media, on Wednesday, at the annual hardware conference held in Seattle, Amazon released more than a dozen new products supporting Alexa. The company also announced that it will add some celebrity stars to Alexa, and will simplify the integration of external hardware with Alexa’s setup steps to make it faster.
There are no clear unified themes behind the released hardware devices, including the new Echo smart speakers, wireless voice-controlled headsets, and Alexa-enabled ovens (this is the second year in a row).
However, by investing in a lot of ideas in the market and seeing which ideas can persist, Amazon wants to spread more of the company’s key technologies, such as Alexa and Sidewalk. Sidewalk is a newly released wireless technology that is expected to have a wider range of uses than Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Amazon also showed off new Alexa features such as multi-language mode and new ways to add it to smart home devices.
It’s unclear how Amazon’s hardware devices can help the company achieve profitability. Although hardware devices have always been Amazon’s best-selling products, the company did not disclose how much revenue they brought.
Amazon senior vice president Dave Limp told the media that the company does not regard these products as profit centers, but rather as a long-term strategy to retain customers and let them Continue to purchase products in the Amazon ecosystem.
Linpu said: “We strive to make the price of our products equal to the cost of production. We think this is very in line with customers, we don’t make a lot of money, we don’t lose a lot of money, but what we have to do is to use it at the customer. These products also help Amazon and external developers make money, not just when consumers buy products.”
The following are some of the major hardware launches at the Wednesday conference:
Apple Bluetooth headset competing products and smart speakers
The company has released a series of updates for the Echo smart speaker series, which for the first time popularize Amazon’s own voice assistant Alexa in the home. According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partner CompanyData, Amazon continues to occupy a place in the field of smart speakers, controlling 70% of the market. However, competitors such as Google are catching up.
In order to get Alexa out of the house and into more mobile devices, Amazon released Echo Buds, the rival of Apple AirPods. The $129 headset comes with Alexa, a battery life of 5 hours, and Bose’s noise reduction technology.
The most striking new smart speaker is the $199 Echo Studio, which is larger than the previous model, equipped with higher-quality speakers, can play 3D sound, and got Dolby Atmos technology. stand by. This device is conceptually similar to Apple’s HomePod, which focuses on sound quality.
Amazon’s other $99 smart speaker is also updated with upgraded speakers and a range of new colors. In addition, the new Echo Show 8 video calling device offers a larger 8-inch screen and more powerful audio capabilities.
In addition to a new version of the Echo Dot mini smart speaker, the price is not expensive, starting at 59 US dollars (about 354 yuan), this device is also equipped with an LED display, under the fabric cover of the device clock.
The most visually appealing device that Amazon showed on Wednesday might be Echo Glow, a bedside companion device.
This $30 device is designed for children and lets them tap the top of the device to cycle through a series of bright colors. It is paired with Alexa, and the user can set a timer, play music, and turn on “Campfire Mode.”