One of the reasons why the Amazon Echo became an astounding success is that it helps users do a myriad of things and not just merely keep a shopping list. It can do a lot of tasks with just your voice commands.
According to David Limp, the devices chief at Amazon.com, the device is becoming an all-out shopping machine and it still has a long way to go.
When the voice-activated speaker was launched by the Seattle, WA-based company in late 2014, Echo was only able to add an item onto a shopping list. But in 2015, the speaker was upgraded to allow users to reorder their past purchasers by their voice commands.
Right after, Alexa was incorporated into the system which gave the speaker the capability to let the user buy some items which he has not previously ordered, but only if the user allows Amazon to do the choosing of the product brand and types to buy.
The screen-less, voice controlled computer-speaker has been given a number of upgrades since its initial release. It has now morphed into a gadget that offers a lot of potential. Just like the iPhone, it opens up a vast, undiscovered realm in personal computing and gives a hint as to the role personal computers will play in the future.
Echo does not look very impressive since it is but a diminutive machine that the user sets in a small corner in his house. But it can now perform multiple tasks such as reading the news and telling the weather, playing music and keeping a shopping list, and now do the actual online shopping for its users.
"I think you'll see us continuing to add more layers of those kinds of features," stated David Limp to Re/code, a tech news and review website, in early March, when Amazon launched two new Echo models at a promotional event.
"But the end goal - it may take a long time - is to get to the point where you can order anything on Amazon," added Limp.
