In the decade plus since Amazon introduced its line with Echo Smart speakers, we’ve used “Alexa” to tackle them. It’s the standard wake word, and soon, like Alexa+, it will be the name that marks its most striking AI glow.
However, hardware is still officially known as Echo Dot, Echo Show, etc.
After a tip-off from a reader, Verge was able to confirm that you could sometimes see an echo show listed as an Alexa show on Amazon.com, as part of a test that the online retail giant is running. I have tried without success to get Amazon.com to show me such a result, but I really hope the name change will be a real thing.
The reality is that no one thinks about their Amazon Smart -speakers like ‘Echo’ devices. We call them Alexas because that’s the name they are responding to. We’ve never said, “Echo, what’s the weather like tomorrow?” Maybe if Amazon had gone that route back in 2015, we might argue that these are really all echo devices.
Echo has never been a good name. Oxford dictionary defines echo as:
“A sound or a series of sounds caused by the reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener.”
If all the different Echo devices were simply speakers, this may make sense. But Echo Smart speakers not only reflect our voices and requests; They listen, think, and they do not just respond and jump back what we said.
The combination of names is not much better either. “Echo Show” is not good. It ends up sounding like “an echo you can see.” Nothing in it says, “Intelligence plus a display.”
Now let’s try “Alexa Show”. We already know what Alexa means and the combination is instantly “smart you can see”.
Just imagine
Although Amazon rolls a much smarter and more generative AI-Infunded Alexa with Alexa+, I do not see the need to push a ‘+’ into the different product names. However, putting ‘Alexa’ Front and Center on products is probably a smart way to incentive more Alexa+ recording.
It tickles me to imagine the whole Amazon line of the best Alexa speakers, many of whom are part of our best smart speakers, reshaped around the fire ideal ‘Alexa’:
- Alexa Dot
- Alexa Spot (for more simplification, combined with above)
- Alexa Studio
- Alexa Pop
- Alexa frames
- Alexa earplugs
- And so on
I would even argue that branding could expand to other Amazon -native devices such as four Stick Line (Alexa Fire Stick) and four tablets (Alexa Fire Tablet). Kindles would only make sense if Amazon decides to integrate some basic Alexa features (though not likely, as most people read their Kindle’s offline).
A dose of reality
As much as I want Amazon to fully introduce Alexa branding across all these devices, it is not likely to happen. When I asked Amazon directly about the test, they threw a huge bucket of cold water on the idea of a larger change of product category.
A spokesman for Amazon told me, “I didn’t want to read too much into this. Customers love both Echo and Alexa and searching for our products in a variety of ways – we run an experiment to better understand product discovery, but that doesn’t mean anything will change.”
When I read it, however, the message is not “that will never change.” Instead, they said, “… It doesn’t mean anything will change.”
It’s like when I ask my wife if she thinks we’re winning the lottery and she says, “Almost certainly not,” and I always answer, ‘so you say there’s a chance …’
Droping Echo and adopting Alexa everywhere would be a smart move and I still hope Amazon takes it from experiment to strategic update. What do you think? Tell me that in the comments below.
