The release of Amazon’s smartphone barely two years ago which has gone under could have as well never existed. The company received applause for its ideas regarding the ‘Fire Phone’ with 3D screen effect powered by its four camera system developed in Lab 126, which is a Silicon Valley secretive web. This applause was later retrieved after it proved to be a commercial disaster.
Developed with Amazon’s OS with a high price margin, it got its users disappointed after it failed to pose as a challenge for Google or Apple smartphones.
Apart from the faults that were seen in the phone, the company happened to enter the market when the market has already been taken over which was why they only managed to sell a few thousands while others were selling in millions and billion.
If the company had been so much into the system, they would have gone further to find out what went wrong and see if it can be amended. But they seem to have settled in with the shares that have been rising since 2014.
So with the exit of Fire Phone comes the Echo by Amazon. It is a black cylinder that uses a two-way microphone and wireless speaker combinations with the help of Alexa – an artificial intelligence virtual assistant. The Echo does such things as turning off lights, reading the news, etc that are commanded by voice while sitting comfortably in one corner of the living room or kitchen.
Because of the failure recorded with the Fire Phone, people at first dismissed Echo as nothing but another joke from Amazon, but down the line, the stance is changing as people are discovering that Echo is everything but a joke. Funny enough, users seem to have embraced it more than similar products from Apple and Google. They feel more comfortable speaking from any part of their home which Echo responds to than having to reach for their phone and speaking into it as is required by Google and Apple’s voice assistants.
Echo seems to thrive on Amazon’s renowned cloud computing prowess. However, do not be carried away by the buzz created by Echo, as it is still selling less than Apple’s Watch, but an has seen some increase in sales in the last few months and expected to sell more when released to Germany and UK in the later part of the month.
Amazon is not doing badly in the market considering its late entrance even with Google announcing a competitor for Echo to which Amazon doesn’t seem to be perturbed about. There are also hints that Apple is also looking into that department with the truth being that Amazon has already gotten hold of the market having arrived first.
We all look forward to the rat race that will ensue that is expected to spike British artificial intelligence expertise.
Amazon got its idea of the Echo from Evi, which it got in 2012 as a startup. With the Google AI and Apple’s yet-to-be-announced rival for the Echo, it will be interesting to see know which company tech investors in Britain will follow.
