For those wondering about the uses of Alexa, check this out:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/7/107...ver-smart-home
There are two separate products here: Echo, the bluetooth/internet speaker and the Alexa cloud-based voice recognition service. Alexa can be and is being implemented in non-Echo devices and Non-Amazon devices.
Echo's implementation (and the Fire TV implementation) support an extensive range of end user customization through it's support for ITTT. People have used that for home automation, accessing info on websites, or simply passing data to PC's or Macs that then process it. Through PC/Mac interfaces (or custom interfaces using the ASK devevolper kit) Echo/Alexa can control practically anything. That is the stealth part of Amazon's play.
Where everybody in home automation, for example, is trying to get consumers to pick their device ecosystem and forgo all others, Amazon is making Alexa the central hub by supporting everybody.
Use cases will depend on what exactly you need controlled.
As a fan on Heinlein's Door into summer, I can see Alexa evolving into the control for home robots like his HandyAndy. And since Amazon already owns a robotics company...
As things are going, Alexa is half a step from becoming Skynet. Or at least the Kilg%re.
