Why Alexa Hasn’t Yet Become the Real Computer of the Future
Fast-forward to today, and there are over 40 million Echo smart speakers in US households, with Alexa processing billions of commands a week globally. But despite this proliferation of products and popularity, the “superhuman assistant who is there when you need it, disappears when you don’t, and is always working in the background on your behalf” that Amazon promised just isn’t here.
Alexa is still mainly doing what it’s always done: playing music, reporting the weather, and setting timers. Its capabilities have expanded — Alexa can now do useful things like control your lights, call your mom, and remind you to take out the trash. But despite a significant investment of time, money, and resources over the last decade, the voice assistant hasn’t become noticeably more intelligent. As one former Amazon employee said, “We worried we’ve hired 10,000 people and we’ve built a smart timer.”
Via Dan Moren:
There was a real feeling of breakthrough to that original product, but—not unlike Siri—it feels like it never really moved a base level of functionality, despite all of Amazon’s efforts.
I think a big part of what has stymied Amazon in particular is trying to figure out where the Echo fit into its overall strategy. If Apple’s business is selling hardware and Google’s is selling ads, Amazon’s biggest might be shopping? But the shopping experience from the Echo has always been weird and less than ideal.
I can see why Alexa could be viewed as a disappointment, but I’m happy to have a device that does the basics really well. We have both an Echo and a HomePod in our kitchen, and everyone defaults to asking Alexa instead of Siri. We even tend to use it for music, even though it sounds much worse. Even though we don’t subscribe to Amazon Music, it has a higher chance of actually playing the requested song. The HomePod is for more deliberate music playing via AirPlay and for getting a second opinion when looking up information.
Siri remains software I distrust. Like Federighi, I would struggle to list my usage beyond a handful of simple commands — timers, reminders, and the occasional message. Anything else, and it remains easier and more reliable to wash my hands if I am kneading pizza dough, or park the car if I am driving, and do things myself.
Previously:
- Playing Purchased Music on HomePod
- Apple Intelligence in macOS 15.1 and iOS 18.1
- Amazon Alexa to Lose $10 Billion This Year
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It was never going to work, just like so many other hyped (LLMs) waves of the future won’t work, because they take too much intangible nuance away from humans, and humans, imperfect in so many ways as we are, will always be better at nuance than machines will.
It’s the same reason so many tech products go nowhere. The people actually ultimately responsible for them simply don’t use them.
Software and hardware products today are for the sole purpose of turning a profit for the company. Functionality, user experience, idealism, none of it matters even the slightest bit anymore.
This is why people miss Steve Jobs. He was perhaps the only tech CEO in recent memory that clearly used his own products. Obviously they were not perfect, but can you even picture Jeff Bezos seriously daily using Alexa?
I wonder if senior executives at Apple even use their own Macs anymore.
> It’s the same reason so many tech products go nowhere. The people actually ultimately responsible for them simply don’t use them.
I have no choice but to believe this. Because otherwise, it means the people in charge are intentionally obtuse, which I just refuse to believe.
In addition to all the other factors, this is an example of where a closed ecosystem prevented the kind of out-of-the-box innovation that helped make other platforms successful.
It’s quite simple really - most (sighted) people in most circumstances like to see things - whether a list of things whilst shopping or choosing a song in music - just Barking out the first thing that comes into your head isn't fun for long.
I used a great app (Tango?) that linked my iPad visually to my iPhone’s music library when docked in a nice Sony speaker - so a smart speaker always seemed like a downgrade - i never did.
Unfortunately apple system updates killed the app just as they were launching apple music oh well.
I can set a timer with my watch thanks.
