Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 871 posts

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#251

Post by Terretta »

paxys wrote: post #86

The 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…

> How convenient would it be if people could shout "Alexa order me Tide Pods"... The problem is that consumers don't behave like that.

A bigger problem is their kids do.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#252

Post by smrtinsert »

paxys wrote: post #86

The 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 would not give Amazon control over my home. That's too far. I want a company that focuses on security.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#253

Post by fantasybuilder »

InfiniteRand wrote: post #19

I definitely think Amazon music’s growth is completely Alexa driven but not sure how much revenue that makes

Isn't Amazon Music included for free with Prime? It must be the biggest reason for its growth. I personally don't know anyone who pays for Amazon Music without Prime.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#254

Post by nox101 »

S0y wrote: post #113

>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…

I already have that, it's my phone. I don't need a second device to respond to "Set a timer"

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#255

Post by nox101 »

textlapse wrote: post #225

If Amazon (and Google and Apple) couldn’t figure out how to monetize a voice/chat ‘app’ after a decade of plowing money into it, how does the whole LLM market come to fruition? Genuinely curious as I see a similar trend: there is definite consumer interest, but just like ‘kitchen timers on Alexa’ what if the LLMs main use case is simply to generate funny memes and the most basic RAG? How does this manifest into a tri…

> how does the whole LLM market come to fruition?

I'm paying for chatGPT and use it quite often. I find it very useful. I don't pay for chat because there have been free options since the 80s. I don't pay for voice(chat) because there have free options for ~10yrs?

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#256

Post by joshmarinacci »

conradfr wrote: post #245
textlapse wrote: post #225

If Amazon (and Google and Apple) couldn’t figure out how to monetize a voice/chat ‘app’ after a decade of plowing money into it, how does the whole LLM market come to fruition? Genuinely curious as I see a similar trend: there is definite consumer interest, but just like ‘kitchen timers on Alexa’ what if the LLMs main use case is simply to generate funny memes and the most basic RAG? How does this manifest into a tri…

They are useful for customer service.

When? I’ve used various customer service chat bots and they just point me to the knowledge base. They can’t take any actions. You have to talk to a human for that, and if I just wanted info I wouldn’t have contacted support in the first place.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#257

Post by rainbowzootsuit »

39896880 wrote: post #170
AlexandrB wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, Costco is like the opposite of the Amazon experience. Costco will only carry a few brands of any given item, but they're all generally pretty good with nothing drop-shipped from a random AliExpress vendor. Their house brand - Kirkland - is pretty good as well. It's a curated set of products with a relatively small number of SKUs vs. Amazon's flea-market-like experience.

The Kirkland house brand is often backed by one of the name brands they sell. They have quality metrics for Kirkland and they check the products regularly. If the quality dips, they swap out the provider.

This used to be the Sears Kenmore & Craftsman model where appliances were really Whirlpool, or Maytag, Carrier{1}.

Hand tools variously came from many OEMs like SK, Plumb, Knipex, and Williams{2}. I suppose they still do, now at Lowes, but the OEM is Chinese.

{1}https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/How_to_identify_who_made_your_Ke...

{2}https://forum.toolsinaction.com/topic/2118-craftsman-date-co...

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#258

Post by kevinsundar »

Kon-Peki wrote: post #219
HaZeust wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A cooking class won't eliminate the raw meat on your bare hand

Both of them? At the time where you need a timer?

You've never had to set a timer while cutting meat (which inherently takes two hands)?

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#259

Post by sambaumann »

wnc3141 wrote: post #149
jprete wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your point, one can't even pick out a brand-name product directly from Amazon's website and be sure of getting the real thing.

That's been an issue with ordering consumer electronics. I don't know if the item is refurbished, returned,or endorsed by the manufacturer warranty. I basically only order through the manufacturer or best buy these days.

Even when amazon shows that you're on the manufacturer store, it still may not be genuine. I bought an intel wifi card off what looked like the official intel store on amazon, but it turns out that it was an out of production model sold by a third party, but amazon showed that it was "Intel". Very confusing and frustrating if you don't know what to look for beforehand.

Re: Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

#260

Post by kps »

RheingoldRiver wrote: post #216
S0y wrote: post #113

>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…

I really enjoy this joke, "Wow, my laptop is a really expensive clipboard today" "My monitor is a really expensive webcam stand" "My phone is a really expensive alarm clock" It's never not funny to me

It's a very old joke, by computing standards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expensive_Tape_Recorder
Post reply on HN