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Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

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Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#171

Post by toxican »

sikim wrote: post #168
matwood wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what are people actually using these for? Off the top of my head from last night while cooking dinner: * "hey google, add olive oil to the grocery list" * "hey google, set a timer for 15 minutes for rice" * "hey google, play some Christmas music" * "hey google, how much time is left on the rice" I could have fumbled with pulling out my iphone for all of these, but I would have had to stop prepping dinner, wash my h…

I believe from iPhone 6S and above, there's an option to just say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri without having to touch the phone, so you can basically do the same thing with iPhones.

5s had it as well, although it needed to be charging, which limited the usefulness of it greatly.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#173

Post by dx034 »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #30

I see this "artificial supply constraint" hype-mobile getting played up a lot by consumer electronics marketing. It's pretty easy to get the factories in Shenzhen to crank out a couple extra to meet demand (it USED to be a lot harder). I call BS.

The manufacturing process is likely still several days as it involves more than one factory in the process. Plus shipping to the US (1-2 days) you'll end up at probably around a week in the best case. And that only if there's enough cargo capacity to add 100k units on that route (don't know how busy they are in these weeks). I'd guess it's realistically closer to 2 weeks from decision until it's in the warehouse.

It seems to me that the Echo is what amazon pushes most at the moment. They want to be in every house. I don't think they make much by selling it, it's mostly to bind people to amazon (prime and buying through the device). It doesn't make sense to constraint supply in that case. Constraining supply is used for expensive items to suggest that they're sought after. Don't think Echo fits in that category.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#175

Post by dx034 »

CaptSpify wrote: post #47
philip1209 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not. They can't gain sales from this because they're sold out. High opportunity cost - flatline zero revenue for the next week, which is (at least one of) the highest demand weeks of the year.

They can't gain sales now from this, but why not in a few weeks when they have more supply?

You don't want to have a voucher under the tree, you want the product. Delivery in January will put off everyone who wants to buy as a present.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#176

Post by drzaiusapelord »

sikim wrote: post #168
matwood wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what are people actually using these for? Off the top of my head from last night while cooking dinner: * "hey google, add olive oil to the grocery list" * "hey google, set a timer for 15 minutes for rice" * "hey google, play some Christmas music" * "hey google, how much time is left on the rice" I could have fumbled with pulling out my iphone for all of these, but I would have had to stop prepping dinner, wash my h…

I believe from iPhone 6S and above, there's an option to just say "Hey, Siri" to activate Siri without having to touch the phone, so you can basically do the same thing with iPhones.

But then he's listening to Christmas music via crappy phone speakers. I think people in this discussion are ignoring the advantage of having half-way decent speakers in Echo and Google Home.

Also, your phone may be deep in a pocket, in a coat, or in your purse in the other room. Echo/Home is right there in the kitchen waiting for you.

Lastly, you have no battery worries. Want 12+ hours of music in the kitchen? No problem.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#177

Post by Crespyl »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #126

Having a hot mic in my house that there is data to servers that I don't control really doesn't appeal to me. Although I know my Android phone is essentially the same thing, I'm actively looking to replace my version of Android with something different soon as I can.

And at least with an Android phone it's typically possible to root/wipe and install a custom OS that's completely separated from Google/whoever. There's usually still a few binary blob drivers, and you have to have some trust that the hardware itself isn't malicious, but at least you can be confidant that it's not dependent on/subservient to some online service that's out of your control.

I'm not terribly interested in any home automation/assistant system that requires an always on connection to some external server.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#178

Post by dx034 »

MatthaeusHarris wrote: post #31
jcoder wrote: post #2

Considering the ambiguity of "Sold Out", maybe the original headline, "Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush", would be better?

I got what you meant, and that was my first thought too. The main reason I haven't bought an Echo (and am looking into self-hosted solutions instead) is the privacy concern.

Was really concerned about that. But in the end it's really no different from a smartphone/laptop. If someone compromises my device it could also always send. I have to trust the manufacturer of my phone not to transmit audio unless I tell them to, and the same is true for Amazon.

I'm also pretty sure that people would've noticed if it always sends by default, guess some people will have monitored traffic from/to the device.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#179

Post by tclancy »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

Another kindred spirit here, another programmer who can't tell if they're just getting old or if electronic devices are getting worse. I describe each of our AppleTVs as "something that works perfectly, except when you really need it"-- when we finally have time to watch a movie we want to see, when our daughter is losing her mind about wanting to see some video, that's the only time it craps itself.

>2016 macbook that for some reason won't keep disconnecting from my WiFi router

I have had two different Macs that did this. I did a ton of research (those 5-10(!) year-old bookmarks in Pinboard are unsurprisingly dead) and found certain wifi chipsets had problems (which is why other people with the same model as you will say they've never had a problem). That said, when we moved into our new house a year ago I had to buy a new router and add an access point because of the step up in square footage and I haven't had a problem since.

Of course, that new router was one of the Netgear ones with the giant security hole that was revealed a couple of weeks ago . . .

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#180

Post by bbgm »

hijohnnylin wrote: post #26

what are people actually using these for? i'm legitimately curious about the use cases for this. if you have an android phone or iphone or smartwatch, you already can "Hey Siri/Google" whatever you want, including playing music. is it for light switches? Hey Siri/Google already does this, no? also, how many people have 50$ wifi connected bulbs? and isn't the most convenient way to turn on a light switch still just ph…

As a "read me the news, play NPR or BBC or Podcasts, tell me the weather, make a shopping list" kind of device, to play music in various places, to manage a lot of the automation in the house, to listen to audible books, to buy music.

I have Echoes in the bedroom and kitchen/living room and a Tap that floats.

NB: I work for AWS but am just an general Alexa fanboy (and I am definitely a lot older than 27).

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