Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can set the volume to any number from 1-10
Which correlates to 10% and 100%. I want for example 15%, which works with the buttons.
If you say, "volume 15 percent" it will set it to 15%.
Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
201–210 of 871 posts
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#202Speaking of Alexa: Can anyone explain the thought process behind making it possible to change the volume in small increments via buttons, but not via voice command (only in 10% increments)? I only use it as an internet radio player for background music and it's extremely annoying that it can't do that.
If you say, "volume 15 percent" it will set it to 15%.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#203>Customers actually used Echo mostly for free apps such as setting alarms and checking the weather. “We worried we’ve hired 10,000 people and we’ve built a smart timer,” said a former senior employee. That's actually really funny to read. Just last night I was watching my brother cook and he asked Alexa to set a timer (It's pretty much the only thing he uses it for...) I jokingly said "You know, that's a really expen…
my Alexa use cases are timer, music, news (sorta), weather. I also use "routines" for pranks form time to time.
I setup a routine that made it say "I heard that" at 630pm on a Friday when my MIL comes over, drinks some wine, and starts talking about the latest conspiracies her and her son have been discussing. Heh, Alexa blurting out "i heard that" in the middle of the conversation like it was listening all along worked like a charm.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Downstream impact is gamed internally at Amazon. People crucified Sears for making teams compete internally but that’s literally what’s happening at Amazon at a larger scale. Teams and orgs regularly push back against helping each other. Will not waste resources to help others. I don’t believe Amazon has a good outlook over 5 years unless they get lucky with random bets. They no longer innovate, they just copy and tr…
I think even if Amazon stagnates, servicing that core business at scale is a once in a generation moat.
Retail is extremely competitive. Amazon does not have the best prices, and has a horrible experience for shopping. It's basically a specialized search engine with lots of ads at this point. Also, the things which made Amazon shopping a no-brainer are gone. Items no longer always arrive within two days if you have Prime, there are lots of poor-quality items, and it's hard to find what you really want. Finally, it's obvious Amazon's retail employees are not customer obsessed. Look at the web site design, and ask yourself if you would design a retail web site like Amazon's?
My guess is Amazon's retail business will eventually start declining as customers discover it's relatively expensive, and it's too easy to buy low quality items.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
I once heard about a feature dogfooding invite that was sent out specifically for people with babies because they wanted to use Alexa always-listening to activate when a baby was crying and automatically order diapers or something ridiculous like that.
I remember getting that invite! You could use "baby crying detected" as an automation trigger
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Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
You bought an Alexa..... For the kids dorm room...? Wanna share with us your thought process?
It was requested for…weather, alarms, music. You know - all the things his phone ALREADY DOES.
you can use routines to get alexa to talk pretty dirty. heh I bet it's good for a dorm room laugh or two.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#207Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think any of that is true. If Costco produced such features in their imaginary product, people may use it. Why? Because Costco has proven itself trustworthy of a blind repeat purchase. You could trust the price you're paying is typical and fair. Amazon on the other hand...
The prices for items in my Amazon cart change multiple times per day. Until they figure out price stability for staple goods then nobody will use this. Hell I don't even use Subscribe and Save for the same reason.
This. I bought toothpaste on Amazon, used it up, and the next time I went to buy the exact same toothpaste, the price had doubled.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think any of that is true. If Costco produced such features in their imaginary product, people may use it. Why? Because Costco has proven itself trustworthy of a blind repeat purchase. You could trust the price you're paying is typical and fair. Amazon on the other hand...
The prices for items in my Amazon cart change multiple times per day. Until they figure out price stability for staple goods then nobody will use this. Hell I don't even use Subscribe and Save for the same reason.
Same, that's really why it was my sticking point for the post when in reality, getting the wrong item is a bigger issue. Lots of times I'll order something on promo only to have it substituted in the near future for either an inferior product or near double the cost.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#209The problem with Alexa is that they overpriced it and pocketed the money instead of using the cost of the machine to build something that performed most of its commands on device. Instead, it's reliant on the cloud which is 100% a problem they created. That being said, their "losses" are all just tax write offs that they have to pay themselves, so Amazon doesn't lose a dime.
It's better to pay taxes on profits than to lose money and not pay takes. The reason is very simple. If you pay taxes, you keep the portion of money you made. If you lose the money, you have nothing. Note, I suspect that the Alexa business is worth nothing, and I bet the shareholders would rather have the money spent on Alexa instead of having the Alexa business.
Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions
#210The core issue is that Amazon envisioned Alexa as a product that would help it increase sales. Smart home features were always an afterthought. How convenient would it be if people could shout "Alexa order me Tide Pods" from wherever they were in their home and the order got magically processed? That demo definitely got applause from a boardroom full of execs. The problem is that consumers don't behave like that. Thi…
> I always want to see a page with the product details and price before I click "buy". Reducing the number of clicks is not going to make me change my decision. This is compounded by the multi-headed monster that large orgs like theirs have no choice but to become. If customers could trust that every day essentials had a relatively stable price and availability pattern like they trust from their local grocery store (…
This a million times.
I swear I will never understand why Amazon's supply, organization, and pricing for household goods is such a disaster.
Because their experience for mainstream books is mostly perfectly fine -- there's a single listing for each book, and the price doesn't change much, just some discount from list. It works.
But for things like paper towels or Tide or whatever, it's utter chaos. Multiple listings for the same item, sizes and quantities that mysteriously move from one listing to another, prices that vary 10x or more...
It's utterly baffling to me why Amazon created this consumer-hostile nightmare. I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, but everything home and toiletries I buy from Target online, simply because the listings and prices are totally consistent. Even though I have Prime! I don't understand why Amazon doesn't figure out that Prime consumers like me buy from Target instead because Amazon's household supplies listings are such utter unpredictable garbage, while Target just works like a normal store.