An article in the WSJ yesterday says Amazon is looking to cut costs in its Alexa devices division, which has had annual losses of up to $5 billion annually in some recent years.
Quote:
As part of the monthslong cost-cutting review, Amazon’s leadership is closely evaluating its Alexa business, according to some of the people. The business has more than 10,000 employees and is a major recipient of investment capital, some of the people said. Internal documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal show that in some recent years Amazon’s devices unit, which includes Alexa, had an operating loss of more than $5 billion a year.
Amazon is currently considering whether it should focus on trying to add new capabilities to Alexa, a voice assistant available on a variety of Amazon devices. Adding capabilities would require greater investment, and many customers use Alexa for only a few functions, some of the people said.
|
Presumably the data they’re mining, and we all know she’s listening, doesn’t offset the costs. The R&D must be stratospherical. But how to limit the losses? I don’t see raising prices on the devices as a winning strategy; in part because the ones people already have are mostly good enough so the only incentive to upgrade is a deal and in part because it’s a one-off in terms of income for perpetual access.
Could they possibly consider making it a subscription service? Perhaps basic functionality for free but you pay for premium?