Yes I own 3 Alexas and still like them. But it's the same device it was when I bought them a decade ago, just occasional new hardware with nicer speakers + more TV/3rd party device integrations. Just like Siri it's software entered total technical stagnation post-launch. Not even the incredibly confusing Alexa settings/management app has improved nor the 3rd party extension marketplace. There's been no strong competition to improve it's technical capabilities as the entire market plateaued and stopped trying very hard.
Plenty of companies have thousands of employees working on stuff that never gets better and at best efficiently maintains status quo, until some competition eats their lunch.
Looking forward to seeing who wins Alexa+ w/ Claude vs Google's Gemini devices, or whoever does ChatGPT voice assistant
One new thing was custom silicon for local, cloud-free audio processing, https://www.slashgear.com/amazon-skips-the-cloud-with-local-.... When combined with US-firmware Zigbee on Echo 4, it allows local device control by voice, without any internet connection. But now they are sadly dropping that to send all audio to the cloud for LLMs.
The failed Alexa software ecosystem was such a lost opportunity, as the device even ran Android. Their hardware ecosystem was more successful, e.g. voice-controlled microwave sold many units with happy customers who still complain about discontinuation of the affordable device. They experimented with niche devices, e.g. make or answer calls on an existing landline, using any Alexa device. Also sadly deprecated, for much weaker VOIP limited to 10 correspondents and random outbound caller ID.
Plenty of companies have thousands of employees working on stuff that never gets better and at best efficiently maintains status quo, until some competition eats their lunch.
Looking forward to seeing who wins Alexa+ w/ Claude vs Google's Gemini devices, or whoever does ChatGPT voice assistant