Amazon Runs Out of Some Echo Speakers the Week Before Christmas
(Bloomberg) -- Shoppers hoping to get their hands on one of Amazon.com Inc.'s Echo smart speakers before Christmas may come away disappointed.
Several of the e-commerce giant's online stores in North America and Europe showed various models of the Alexa-powered line of gadgets temporarily out of stock on Monday, with shipment delayed to January or beyond in some places.
The Echo is the flagship device in Amazon's growing line of consumer electronics and a fixture of the company's advertisements during the holiday shopping season.
The company said it sold “millions” of Echo devices worldwide during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and Cyber Monday and that the hockey puck-shaped Echo Dot was the bestselling product on Amazon during that period.
In the U.S., a product listing for the Echo Spot shows availability beginning Jan. 1. Other models were available for delivery beginning this week or, in the case of the Echo Plus, immediately. The Echo Dot is listed as unavailable in European countries in which Amazon sells the device, with estimated delivery dates ranging from January in Britain to as late as April in Germany.
Other retailers, including Best Buy Co. and Target Corp., had Echo Dot devices in stock for immediate shipment Monday. Amazon didn't immediately comment on the shipment delays.
The company invented the voice-activated speaker category with the 2014 release of the Echo, a sleek plastic column that lets users play music, read the weather or news stories and control an array of internet-enabled home electronics.
Google entered the market in 2016 with its Home lineup of smart speakers, and 2018 marks the first year Apple Inc.'s rival HomePod will be on sale during the peak holiday shopping months.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matt Day in Seattle at mday63@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robin Ajello at rajello@bloomberg.net, Emily Biuso
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
-
'Never Seen This Level Of Negativity': Sandeep Tandon Says The Next Rally May Be Closer Than You Think
Veteran investor Sandeep Tandon says foreign selling is easing, large-caps are due a comeback and mid-caps are crowded, while he turns positive on gold, power and pharma this Diwali.
