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Why Amazon is Losing The Voice Assistant Battle
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Why are experts calling Alexa, one of Amazon’s best-selling products, a colossal failure?
If you’d prefer to watch, here’s a video:
In 2011, Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, stood at a whiteboard and made a sketch for a new device. It was something inspired by Star Trek, his favorite TV series as a child. He called the device a voice computer. This voice computer had no keyboard, no mouse, and no screen. It was wireless and featured a microphone and mute button.
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He would eventually hand this idea over to his technical advisor, who would lead the team in bringing Bezos’s Sci-fi vision to life.
Alexa Was Top Secret
In typical Amazon fashion, this project was shrouded in mystery. The company would use a code name to refer to it. During the hiring process, emails and messages were vague.