{"id":8059,"date":"2022-11-26T16:37:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T15:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/26\/alexa-how-did-amazons-wrong-call-on-voice-assistants-tee-up-a-10bn-loss-john-naughton\/"},"modified":"2022-11-26T16:37:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T15:37:49","slug":"alexa-how-did-amazons-wrong-call-on-voice-assistants-tee-up-a-10bn-loss-john-naughton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/26\/alexa-how-did-amazons-wrong-call-on-voice-assistants-tee-up-a-10bn-loss-john-naughton\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexa, how did Amazon\u2019s wrong call on voice assistants tee up a $10bn loss? | John Naughton"},"content":{"rendered":"

The tech giant\u2019s flawed business model for its popular smart devices has cost the company a fortune and thousands of jobs<\/p>\n

Intrigued by an Ars Technica post about Amazon\u2019s Alexa<\/a> that suggested all was not well in the tech company\u2019s division that looks after its smart home devices, I went rooting in a drawer where the Echo Dot I bought years ago had been gathering dust. Having found it, and set it up to join the upgraded wifi network that hadn\u2019t existed when I first got it, I asked it a question: \u201cAlexa, why are you such a loss-maker?\u201d To which she calmly replied: \u201cThis might answer your question: mustard gas, also known as Lost, is manufactured by the United States.\u201d At which point, I solemnly thanked her, pulled the power cable and returned her to the drawer, where she will continue to gather dust until I can think of an ecologically responsible way of recycling her.<\/p>\n

I bought the device on 5 December 2016 (on the basis that one shouldn\u2019t pontificate on kit that one hasn\u2019t purchased oneself) and wrote about it in January 2017<\/a>. Rereading that column now reveals that I thought the device\u2019s arrival represented a significant moment in the evolution of surveillance capitalism. Why? Because its target market was the home<\/em>, which was, as the veteran tech analyst Ben Thompson observed at the time, \u201cthe one place in the entire world where smartphones were not necessarily the most convenient device, or touch the easiest input method: more often than not your smartphone is charging and talking to a device doesn\u2019t carry the social baggage it might elsewhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nThe tech giant\u2019s flawed business model for its popular smart devices has cost the company a fortune and thousands of jobs
\nIntrigued by an Ars Technica post about Amazon\u2019s Alexa that suggested all was not well in the tech company\u2019s division that looks after its smart home devices, I went rooting in a drawer where the Echo Dot I bought years ago had been gathering dust. Having found it, and set it up to join the upgraded wifi network that hadn\u2019t existed when I first got it, I asked it a question: \u201cAlexa, why are you such a loss-maker?\u201d To which she calmly replied: \u201cThis might answer your question: mustard gas, also known as Lost, is manufactured by the United States.\u201d At which point, I solemnly thanked her, pulled the power cable and returned her to the drawer, where she will continue to gather dust until I can think of an ecologically responsible way of recycling her.
\nI bought the device on 5 December 2016 (on the basis that one shouldn\u2019t pontificate on kit that one hasn\u2019t purchased oneself) and wrote about it in January 2017. Rereading that column now reveals that I thought the device\u2019s arrival represented a significant moment in the evolution of surveillance capitalism. Why? Because its target market was the home, which was, as the veteran tech analyst Ben Thompson observed at the time, \u201cthe one place in the entire world where smartphones were not necessarily the most convenient device, or touch the easiest input method: more often than not your smartphone is charging and talking to a device doesn\u2019t carry the social baggage it might elsewhere\u201d. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The tech giant\u2019s flawed business model for its popular smart devices has cost the company a fortune and thousands of jobs Intrigued by an Ars Technica post about Amazon\u2019s Alexa that suggested all was not well in the tech company\u2019s division that looks after its smart home devices, I went rooting in a drawer where …<\/p>\n

Alexa, how did Amazon\u2019s wrong call on voice assistants tee up a $10bn loss? | John Naughton<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8059"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}