Amazon is quietly dropping theEcho Dot with Clock, which comes equipped with an embedded LED display, spokeswoman Liz Roland tellsThe Verge. “You can check the product page for the latest device availability, but once inventory of this generation Echo Dot with Clock is sold through it will not be restocked,” Roland explains. She didn’t say why it’s discontinuing the product, although there are a few possibilities.
The best Amazon Echo speakers
Interested in buying an Alexa-powered Amazon Echo speaker? Then it’s really a question of the room and your budget.
One likely culprit isEcho Spot, which recently saw a refresh after years of neglect. That device is $20 more than the Echo Dot with Clock, but features a full LCD with animations and more on-screen content, such as album art. For the most part the Dot can only show the time, weather, or song info, and it usually defaults to the time, as its name implies. Both it and the Spot have been marketed as bedside speakers.
Amazon is likely to hold an annual devices event in September, so a second possibility is that it’s just trying to clear stock ahead of a new Dot lineup. The current Clock has its fans – but it may be less popular and in shorter supply than the regular Dot, being slightly more expensive without any audio upgrades.
Pains at Amazon
A third possibility is that Amazon is scaling back the Echo product line. Most if not all models are actually loss leaders for the company, intended to get you shopping, exposed to ads, and/or paying for a subscription service like Prime orAmazon Music Unlimited. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Alexa/Echo/Fire divisionlost $25 billionbetween 2017 and 2021, ultimately resulting in thousands of layoffs. It’s not clear to what extent those losses may have been offset by other purchases.
It’s reported that Amazon could try to turn the tide by charging people $5 to $10 per month for anenhanced version of Alexawith generative AI. This would enable proactive smart home automation, as well as far more complex commands. Users could, for instance, compose an email message, send it, and order food delivery all in the same prompt. The existing version of Alexa only supports one command at a time, and can’t handle functions like email.
