Sources: Amazon is testing Alexa-powered devices that can make phone calls and act as intercoms, may launch new devices this year
Alexa is popular, but daily usage is key. — Amazon plans to unveil one or more new Alexa-powered devices this year that will allow people to initiate phone calls by voice …
Context & Ripple Effects
This March 2017 report landed weeks before Amazon shipped the features it described: by May the company had rolled out voice calling and messaging across all Echo devices and the Alexa app, and by June it had turned the intercom idea into the Drop In feature, letting users listen in on remote Echo speakers from another Echo or the phone app.
First-order effects
- Echo owners gain voice-initiated phone calls and room-to-room intercom use without touching a phone, moving Alexa from a query-and-music device toward a household communications endpoint.
- Amazon gets a direct lever on its stated problem — daily usage — since calling and drop-ins are habitual, recurring interactions rather than one-off requests.
Second-order effects
- A communications layer on speakers gives Amazon a natural on-ramp to workplaces, which it followed with Alexa for Business and a marketplace of business skills later that year.
- Sustained demand for new form factors pushed Amazon into an annual hardware cadence, culminating in the at least eight Alexa devices planned for 2018, from microwave to amplifier.
Third-order effects
- If speakers keep absorbing telephony and intercom roles, the smart home's center of gravity shifts from the smartphone to ambient voice hardware — with whoever owns the assistant owning the household's communications graph.
- Device launches become service-delivery mechanisms rather than products in themselves, pressuring rivals to match both the hardware cadence and the always-listening communication features.
The trend: Voice assistants are evolving from single-purpose speakers into always-on communication hubs, with Amazon using a steady drumbeat of new Alexa hardware to convert novelty purchases into daily habits.