I mostly agree with the assertions here. It was too expensive, Siri couldn’t keep up, and so forth. But I have one quibble: I don’t think most people care about the smart assistant in their speakers.

Yes, Amazon has sold a lot. And yes, they have about a jillion third party add-ons. But I run in pretty techie circles and Alexa is pretty dead in the water from an assistant standpoint.

Imagine Amazon sold Alexa as an assistant without any music capabilities and made it free. I suspect it wouldn’t have much of a following at all. I don’t think it’s the price, I think the reality of a smart assistant in the home is not as appealing as we originally thought it would be.