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Alexa is in millions of households and Amazon is losing billions

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

#721

Post by al_borland »

msy wrote: post #486
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…

It would've worked if Amazon hadn't turned their store into a cesspit of fakes, random 3rd parties sellers and arbitrary pricing. At this point if I pressed one of those buttons I'd have zero confidence in what might turn up. If Costco or the like had those buttons that would add it to a regular delivery I'd plaster the house with them.

This is the core problem. If what I wanted was the first search results every time I searched Amazon, and I had no decisions to make between search and buy... then Alexa could work. That is far from the reality. This is a problem Amazon created, so it's hard to feel bad for them.

Not only had this hurt their Alexa dreams, imo it has hurt their brand reputation as well. Amazon is no longer a retailer I trust. I would much rather buy from a more traditional store that doesn't have 3rd party sellers, and maintains standard prices and quantities.

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

#722

Post by RajT88 »

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…

There was a noticeable drop in the quality of her ability to understand and answer questions a couple years back. I didn't get one when they came out in 2014, so I can't compare, but the capability is worse than it was when I first got one maybe 5 years ago.

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

#723

Post by varispeed »

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…

"Alexa order me Tide Pods"

This has many problems. Imagine you are watching a video clip when someone orders a sack of potatoes through Alexa. What is the chance Alexa will place the order?

Or say you wanted to order flour and got flowers etc etc.

Then pranks. Guests enter your house and say "Alexa order 10 packs of cheese!" and you have to rush to cancel it.

Then Amazon has a tonne of spam and rubbish products, what are the chances you get garbage shipped to your house and not the things you wanted.

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

#724

Post by fwip »

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…

Out-of-touch execs that don't know how people shop. They love the experience of having a personal assistant they can tell "buy some flowers for my wife," and they aren't price-sensitive. They happily trade off control over the exact purchase for the time savings.

From that point of view, a robot assistant that you tell "buy me one banana what could it cost ten dollars," and it automatically buys something from their store - that's a slam dunk.

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

#725

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#726

Post by gspencley »

joenot443 wrote: post #706
lionkor wrote: post #605

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its because you clicked on an unrelated google result about string views. After you have taken any kind of C++ course, like learncpp.com, you dont have to look this stuff up anymore either. So if LLMs are worth 200$/month to you, I would be very interested to see what actually learning the tools you use would be worth.

Do you take a course for every programming language you encounter? I needed to edit a Ruby script the other day for a client, though I'm not at all a Ruby developer. ChatGPT was super helpful. If I'm understanding correctly, your model here would instead be to enroll in a Ruby course, right? I think we must value our time very differently :)

Different people learn and approach problems differently.

I haven't taken any programming courses since high-school. But I also very rarely use search engines or LLMs when I'm writing code, even in a language that is new to me.

My preferred approach to learning new languages or frameworks is typically to begin by reading the documentation. If that is not a sufficient enough deep dive because I'm approaching some ginormous "ecosystem" language like Java where I need to learn tons of new concepts to get started then I'll reach for a textbook.

I have tried to get into using LLMs, especially because so many of my coworkers rave about them and they take it for granted that everyone else uses copilot or claude because they use them so much. But I don't find any utility in using copilot (or whatever the JetBrains equivalent is) and I've found that LLMs in general are so hit or miss for me that they have become my last resort for searching for information when all else has failed.

My coworkers often talk about how copilot is like a very advanced auto-complete and that it saves them having to look things up on StackOverflow and copy/paste from there ... but I can probably count the number of times that I've looked something up on StackOverflow over the past 10 - 15 years on one hand, and I've never copy/pasted any code .. not once, ever. Typically I find myself actively searching for solutions when I've come across some weird compiler or framework error that I've never seen before and need to search for that specific error string (in which case a traditional search engine beats an LLM 10/10 times).

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

#727

Post by DragonStrength »

> Amazon’s devices operation was a pet project of Bezos

And he saw it as his way to be Steve Jobs instead of Sam Walton. Bezos got bored with it when it was clear it wasn't working and left the hard work of cleaning up his mess to his successor. It seems clearer than ever that the low interest rates and creative accounting which let Amazon grow like this is not something to admire.

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

#728

Post by bentt »

My kids have grown up with Alexa devices. They use them as speakers, to listen to Audible, and as ways to communicate with us. I've been under the belief that the devices do not spy on us, based on a few test articles I read. If I ever heard that that was not the case I'd jettison them all from the house.

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

#729

Post by 2o34jro2j »

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 recently build some smart controls for my residence. Alexa understands the words "Alexa, tell the device to run" about 2/3 of the time, which is infuriating. The other third of the time you end up with "Announcing, 'tell the device to run.'" Put any white noise in the background, a fan blowing, a tea kettle boiling, anything at all, and recognition drops to below 50%. But google isn't any better.

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

#730

Post by sqeaky »

swatcoder wrote: post #100
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 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 (…

Put another way, I don't trust amazon to not screw me. Many people have concerns, some based in reality and some completely imagined, about Amazon and other large corporations trying to screw them for just a few more cents.

Why would I give up what little control I have?

Buying purely on voice commands is new and different. In an environment of trust that is novel and exciting. In an environment of fear or concern that is scary and burdensome. Why would I choose burdensome?

They need more trust, which means being more trustworthy. That likely means losing some profits for consistency.

They need a smooth voice purchasing experience and I have no clue what that means.

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