Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Just two weeks ago Amazon launched the Echo Look. We all know a screen-based Echo would come. Next up: Echo Hologram? 🤔
But more seriously: the screen will help fix Amazon's broken discovery problem. It's incredibly difficult to find and remember Alexa Skills today.
P.S. Follow the Alexa Skills topic if you're into that. 😊
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Paul Shustak
@paul_shustak · Co-founder karen.care, korwater.com.
@rrhoover Agree with you about skills discovery but I don't see how this is a better solution than the Alexa app already on your phone. Even with a Show in every room, you'll still need to walk and contort a bit to read the screen.
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Ryan Hoover
@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
@paul_shustak how often do you use the Alexa app on your mobile phone? The whole point of the Echo is to decrease friction. It's easier to glance at the Echo Show than pull out your phone and open an app (when you're within its vicinity, of course).
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Noah Kim
@wuss · Startup in Progress ▓▓▓▓░░░░░░░░ 30%
@paul_shustak @rrhoover That's the first thing that popped in my head. The screen adds some much-needed context to Alexa, but IRL, I can't process yet how much of a hurdle a 7" screen is going to create. Part of the whole point of home voice assistants is the ability to roam freely while interacting with it. With a 7" screen, I'd imagine that you'd most likely have to be within a few feet to have it make sense.
So turn that on it's head... if the original Echo released with a hard requirement that you be within 3 feet for it to be activated and useful, is it as compelling? By proxy, that also forces you to think about where you put it now, whereas an echo you could pretty much throw it anywhere within a room.
Realsitically, most of us will walk by 2-5 screens before we even reach the Show. Of all the uses cases on the Show Amazon product page, the only 2 that I can think is perfectly suited for the show is "show the front door camera" and "show my photos". The first because of the immediate nature of the visual request, and the second because of it's persitent nature. I'm not bought in to the video calls, because I used to have skype video phones for me and my family, and it was a huge inconvenience to have this black box permanently fixed to an area thats comfortable to always make and receive video calls. Phones/tablets work much better. It's something you don't realize until you get it home and realize that you don't want a black box sitting in the middle of *insert any table in your home*.
A less business-driven, but sensical approach might have been to take an "echo dot" approach to video, where it syncs with an existing tablet (i.e. Fire HD), for all your display needs, and the echo itself handles audio commands/output. A really far-out there approach might been to develop some really cool pico-laser projection tech (has been out for years), that has enough lumen penetration to project onto vertical surfaces. Laser is great because it's never out of focus regardless of angle or distance.
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David Berkowitz
@dberkowitz · Principal, Serial Marketer
@rrhoover What I don't get beyond the Alexa app is that if you need something with a screen, why not just use your phone? To me, this feels like a $230 iPhone stand.
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