The head of Amazon devices ditched the Echo in his living room for a smart TV

Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Devices and Services, Amazon.com Inc. , during the unveiling event at the company’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday, September 25, 2019.

Chloe Collier | bloomberg | Getty Images

Since Amazon unveiled its Alexa voice assistant in 2014, the company has worked to embed the technology in as many devices as possible, from microwave ovens and thermostats to earphones and wall plugs.

Amazon is now making TVs a bigger focus in its push to put Alexa everywhere, as it looks to solidify its presence in the smart home market. At a hardware event in 2021, the company unveiled its first TVs, which users can control by voice using Alexa. Amazon followed Wednesday’s launch, adding three new sizes of QLED TVs and a cheaper model to its Fire TV lineup.

Smart TVs are the fastest-growing part of the company’s Fire TV business, Dave Limp, president of Amazon devices, told CNBC in an interview, which also includes streaming sticks and the Fire TV Cube, a streaming box with Alexa. Amazon said Wednesday that it has sold more than 200 million Fire TV devices globally, up from 150 million in January.

But with Amazon focusing more on TV, the company is risking the possibility that consumers will put their Echo smart speakers on hold, which were introduced in 2014 and quickly became a household sensation. This is not just an assumption. Lemp ditches the speakerphone in the living room.

“I don’t have an echo there anymore, I just use my TV,” Lemp said. “So she’s doing double duty, it’s just her primary responsibility first and foremost to be great TV.”

Limp, as you’d expect, dismisses the idea that the Alexa-powered Fire TV will unclutter the company’s Echo devices. Entertainment remains the primary purpose of TV, and the Echo’s multiple form factors can be used in any room of the house.

For Amazon to make an impact in the highly competitive smart TV market, the company needs a point of sale that goes beyond TV shows and movies and offers all the streaming services available. Amazon sees an opportunity to turn your TV into what’s essentially an extra-large, always-on smart screen.

The company calls it the Fire TV Ambient Experience. Other companies do too. For example, Samsung and LG have TVs that display high-quality art or photographs when not in use.

“As you go around your house and you have all these dark panels, they usually just shut off and they’re big black holes on the wall in your house,” Lemp said. “How can we make better use of it?”

Amazon is doubling down on TVs as CEO Andy Jassy has moved aggressively to cut costs, resulting in the largest layoffs in company history, corporate hiring freezes and numerous project cancellations.

Part of the layoffs, which are expected to total 27,000 employees, has landed at Limp Corporation, which oversees development of products like Alexa, Echo smart speakers and Kindle e-readers. He previously told CNBC that just under 2,000 people in Lemp’s department were let go as part of the job cuts.

The layoffs in the Alexa department were primarily in and around health-related services and newer projects that were “higher experimental,” Lemp said.

“We’re still very committed to Fire TV and Alexa, and you can see that with the products,” Limp said, referring to Wednesday’s announcement.

Since its launch in 2014, Amazon has made significant investments in Alexa and dedicated top talent to grow the technology, largely under the guidance of founder Jeff Bezos, who saw voice as key to how people will interact with computers in the future. Amazon has about 10,000 people working on Alexa-related projects.

But Bezos’ vision is not universally accepted. bloomberg mentioned Amazon executives have expressed concern about fading Alexa user interaction. Some worry that Echo speakers are heading in the direction of other once-popular consumer devices that are finally losing value. Instead of using them for shopping lists, ordering groceries, and making schedules, what if Echo owners limited their use to basic functions like alarms, timers, and weather updates?

However, Limp said that interaction with Alexa devices continues to increase.

“People use it as an alarm clock, don’t get me wrong, but they use it for many general things,” Lemp said. “It’s incredible when you look at the usefulness of what Alexa brings to the home. I think Fire TV enhances that.”

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