[dmix]

The failure is not in the product, it’s an excellent product.

Their problem is their high expectations to make it a big business. Same way Google kills good products willy-nilly because of unrealistic expectations or inability to spin it off into a self-sustainable project that builds good will with the parent brand.

Whenever Alexa tries to get me to add things to my cart or search products I roll my eyes (it’s never intrusive or annoying, they know better) so I can see why it might not tie in well with their primary business or any added revenue streams.

But they can make money selling the devices or on the App Store - they totally suck at promoting apps and educating users on new usecases. Especially if their AI isn’t going to improve like it hasn’t in the 5 years I’ve used it (if they are investing in the AI side heavily I haven’t seen the ROI).

[inopinatus]

I'd describe it rather as a failed platform, and I point the finger directly at the awful integration experience for developers and users alike. Alexa's skills ecosystem is painful to engage, being bureaucratic, riddled with misbehaviours, janky UX, and breaking API/data changes - all deficiencies whose consequences are pushed back on the consumer and integrator to handle.

The fact my US-made Rainbow Echo Dot stopped working entirely when moved overseas is a testament to the Alexa service team's pernicious gatekeeper mentality. Don't even get me started on the baffling inconsistencies in behaviour exhibited by Alexa when embedded e.g. trying to control my Sonos kit.

I am especially dissatisfied having been the recipient of a pre-production first-generation Echo courtesy of a visiting BDM whilst managing an AWS team in Melbourne. Super excited at the time, super disappointed now.

Perhaps I should've paid more heed to a key early warning of a restricted and rather parochial outlook: in the first year or so of operation it was impossible to register an Echo with a service address outside of the USA, and I could only set an overseas timezone by writing my own configuration front-end. Even for a MVP, in hindsight, that was a red flag.

That quote in the article, "Alexa is a colossal failure of imagination", sums up my feeling (I am not the former employee quoted).

[galaxyLogic]

In this time of too much complexity in apps and user-interfaces it is great that Alexa allows you to accomplish some simple things simply: Alexa play some jazz. Alexa set alarm in 10 minutes.

Those are the two simple things Alexa is good at. Then I also pay for Amazon Music. I don't know if the Amazon profits counts in profit from Amazon Music but without Alexa I would not be be paying for Amazon Music .

[dmix]

> Alexa's skills ecosystem is painful to engage

Agreed, I bashed the AI R&D but really I should be bashing the UX/dev environment. Adding new workflows and finding new apps should be 10x easier. Instead of asking me to add things to a cart they should recommend new ways to use the product.

Amazon has totally undersold the capabilities of their devices to users.

Idk if google is any better. I use Amazon because I love the firestick and I’m a big Audible user.

[reddog]

>it’s an excellent product.

Indeed it is. What Alexa can do today was science fiction 20 years ago. I can say "Alexa, order Earl Grey tea" and a package of Earl Grey tea will show up on my front door step tommorow. Yeah, its slower than a Star Trek replicator but essentially the same thing.

[dmix]

I personally love it but I’m a nerd who is supposed to like it.

What sold me was hearing about my 9yr old niece asking Alexa random questions at 1am because she couldn’t sleep and then asking for rain sounds. And how everyone in the family knows she’s the weather expert because she asks Alexa the weather every morning.