Amazon has just begun to send out invites for a product launch in New York City later this month, which will be hosted by Panos Panay and the Amazon Devices & Services Team. This is going to be taking place on February 26.
Typically, Amazon will hold an event in the fall, around the end of September, to announce a slew of new hardware. However, that did not happen last year. This might be why we are getting this launch in February. This is taking place the week before Mobile World Congress takes place in Barcelona.
Many believe that this is where Amazon will debut the much-rumored supercharged Alexa. Using Amazon’s own Generative AI and LLM (Large Language Model). Alexa itself hasn’t really been upgraded in quite some time, so it is due for a nice upgrade. It’s a much needed upgrade, as every other digital assistant is turning into a chatbot with its own LLM. Like Gemini and Bixby, also Gemini and Google Assistant.
This new Alexa was actually announced back in September 2023, but it has seen multiple delays since then. Hence this late launch, about 6 months later than usual. It’ll be interesting to see what Alexa will be able to do.
Panos Panay’s first launch event since leaving Microsoft
This would also be Panos Panay’s first launch event since heading out the door at Microsoft in 2023. Panay replaced Dave Limp as the head of Devices & Services at Amazon. Which is the group that is responsible for Echo, Fire TV, Kindle, Alexa, and other hardware products.
Panay could use this time to pivot Amazon’s hardware and services ambitions away from launching as many products as possible, to launching products people actually want to use. At this point, we all have at least one Echo in our home. Do we really need a new version?
