Amazon Devices Unit Morale Wanes Amid Cuts, Weak Development Pipeline (reuters.com) 25
Some workers within Amazon's once-storied hardware division -- responsible for popular devices like the Kindle reader and Echo voice-assistant -- say morale within the division has suffered amid staff cutbacks and a pipeline of devices in development that they fear are unlikely to prove hits. From a report: The division, known as Lab126, was a focus for Amazon's founder Jeff Bezos, who portrayed it as an engine for future projects, but more recently it has been buffeted by mass layoffs and key executive departures, including leader Dave Limp, a 13-year veteran who has announced plans to step down later this year. Reuters interviewed more than 15 current and former employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to their employment terms, who described a hodgepodge of new devices in development, many of them aimed at encouraging customers to use the once ground-breaking Alexa voice service that now faces a stiff challenge in the age of generative AI and ChatGPT.
The company -- the world's biggest online retailer -- is holding a devices and services launch event on September 20 where it is expected to feature refreshed versions of some existing products like the Fire tablet, Fire TV stick and Kindle Scribe e-reader, among other announcements. The news agency was able to identify five different new devices under development. These include a carbon monoxide detector and a household energy consumption monitor -- both with Alexa built into them -- as well as a home projector to make any surface a screen. Some of the sources mentioned other projects, the full details of which could not be confirmed.
The company -- the world's biggest online retailer -- is holding a devices and services launch event on September 20 where it is expected to feature refreshed versions of some existing products like the Fire tablet, Fire TV stick and Kindle Scribe e-reader, among other announcements. The news agency was able to identify five different new devices under development. These include a carbon monoxide detector and a household energy consumption monitor -- both with Alexa built into them -- as well as a home projector to make any surface a screen. Some of the sources mentioned other projects, the full details of which could not be confirmed.
And the new boss of that division (Score:2)
is the guy from MSFT that developed Win 11
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If a customer-friendly product comes out of Microsoft, it's a miracle. He's not entirely responsible for Win 11 looking like it does. That said, he has little capability to change culture, so he's probably not going to make any impact on Amazon.
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Windows 11 looks fine. It's the user-hostile functionality that's the problem.
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At your job, does your boss do all the design work and write all the code and do all the art and push out the release himself too ?
Seems impressive that the pencil pushing budget approval guy "Developed" Win 11.
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Guess we found at least someone for the next round of firings that nobody is going to miss.
Gee (Score:4)
Maybe if their Echo devices with screens weren't constantly showing ads, things might change. As it stands, i'd never buy another.
The only reason the Kindle was a success was the ability to purchase it without same.
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I think even with those ads, it still loses money.
Amazon missed an oppertunity by not releasing a ton of amazon brand products that worked automtically with echo. (I know that there are a lot of amazon echo certified devices, but I really am suprised we didn't see a ton of Amazon Basic smart devices.)
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Point taken.
That said, I did notice this [amazon.com] lately, which is right to your point. It's a Honeywell device with Amazon branding.
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For Echo Shows, you can turn off most of the stuff it'll sort through on the display is in Settings > Home and Clock > Home Content. I have mine just showing the weather in places my friends live, and slideshows of my photos.
For FireOS tablets, they charge $15 to turn off the ads if you bought a device that has them. You could also have paid that $15 up front to not have them. I don't have one at the moment, but I've certainly bought enough of them as gifts.
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I have one stashed in a room I don't use much. I'll give that a try, thanks.
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You can also use ADB with debugging turned on if you're so inclined.
I don't find any of the advertisements intrusive on my Kindle and Fire tablets (they only appear once when turned on and the Kindle shows tiny little banner adverts occasionally).
Return to Office (Score:4, Funny)
Wait weren't we supposed to see massive morale boosts and productivity increases because of return to office at Amazon? Could it be that forcing people to spend lots of extra hours from their own time transporting themselves to shit offices that nobody wants to be in, to do work that's most suited for focus, isn't going to magically make them happy employees? Maybe Amazon should mix prozac into the coffee machines to keep up morale.
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You mean, going back to how they were working when products came out regularly, instead of recent work-from-home time?
I've worked with Amazon on projects. Things started in the last two years, when employees were often working from home, have died incomplete. Things started several years ago, when employees were always in the office, were completed and running.
The past two years have not seen a lot of projects conceived and brought to customers. You know, when they were all "happy" to be working from home.
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Please list the products you're referring to.
Full disclosure: I work at AWS.
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2 years? Pandemic started 3.5 years ago. We've seen a ton of great Amazon devices launched that must have been in development in this period. They are now disappointed about devices 1-2 years (or more) out. The smart people working on these devices are involved in the beginning of the project, manufacturing and logistics comes after them.
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They have to drive themselves? On their own time?
We have reached a new age of entilement.
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Yes, I feel entitled to not waste my time on things that have no purpose.
If you pay me for that time, you can waste it any way you like. If it's my time, I'm not fucking about with it.
Shocker. (Score:2)
Flogging will continue (Score:2)
until morale improves.
Discretionary Income (Score:2)
80% of households can't afford a $400 surprise, much less new IoT widgets.
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Aaaaaand we're back at "people have no money".
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Outcome was previsible when started p--- off users (Score:1)
A good example is the alexa device. I used it for a while, had half a dozen dots scattered around the house, doing all sorts of stuff
at one point, they started working on "capitalizing on users for an improved shopping experience", among other annoyances.
The device would start suggesting to buy stuff from them every other query, example
me: alexa turn off the lights (as I am going to sleep)
alexa: done, by the way, I have a list of custom suggestions for christmas shopping, are you interested in that
me: [not
Woefully confused (Score:2)
"...aimed at encouraging customers to use the once ground-breaking Alexa voice service that now faces a stiff challenge in the age of generative AI and ChatGPT."
Huh? How is "generative AI and ChatGPT" a challenge? They're not remotely similar to Alexa. This is like saying that no one will ever want to listen to music, now that these new-fangled "talkie" movies have come out. It's purest wharrrrrgarbl.