AMAZON is struggling to keep people using its Alexa devices after the buyer’s initial excitement wears off. Citing internal documents spanning 2018 to 2021, Bloomberg reported that a number of signs point to a decline in Alexa device owners’ interest and use of the voice-control products. Internal data showed that in some years, 15-25 percent of new users were no longer active with their Alexa devices in their second week since buying them. Amazon said that the vast majority of Alexa users are still active a month after registering their devices and beyond. New Alexa users find half of the features they’ll ever use on the devices in the first three hours from activating them, according to a planning document for 2019 that Bloomberg cited. Amazon said this finding is based on research from 2016, and is no longer accurate. Amazon is throwing plenty of money and manpower at the problem, Bloomberg reports, citing documents that show projections of US$4.2 billion in fixed costs for this year and noting that Amazon has more than 10,000 people working on Alexa. In 2018, the company projected losing US$5 per device this year but hoped to break into profits of US$2 per device in 2028, though an internal market analysis conducted last year concluded Amazon “passed its growth phase” with smart speakers, according to Bloomberg. Documents also laid out plans to outfit Alexa devices with more cameras and sensors so they could recognize different people’s voices and figure out which room a user is in while speaking, Bloomberg reports. Amazon told Insider this isn’t new, pointing to optional features like ultrasound motion detection, visual ID, and Alexa Guard, which notifies users about sounds like smoke alarms and breaking glass. (SD-Agencies) | 