Ah, Echo: awesome "AI" for consuming Amazon services, including buying stuff from Amazon.
Not so great for much else.
The real trick is that they manage to get people to pay them anything for these little trojan horses.
Not so great for much else.
The real trick is that they manage to get people to pay them anything for these little trojan horses.
It's a new interface device. We can finally, easily, use our voice to accomplish tasks-- anywhere in our house. Before, with phones, it was clumsy and required pulling out the phone.
Give it time!
Seriously, in addition to the ease with which you can also use your voice to buy on Amazon, Amazon will surely launch other services based on user behavior. In fact, they may even acquire popular services you currently use.
And, of course, it's compiling data on you.
It's a useful trojan horse, but a trojan horse nonetheless. Of course, if it wasn't useful it wouldn't succeed as a trojan horse. So, not saying it's evil. But, it's amazing that they are able to get people to pay for something from which they will ultimately collect many times the value.
So, I'm just pointing to the fact that, ultimately, Amazon seeks (and likely will get) more value out of the Echo than does the customer (or at least much more than the initial cost). Yet, they are able to get the customer to pay for the privilege.
Cool trick if you can pull it off.