Amazon is revamping its Alexa voice assistant as it prepares to launch a new paid subscription plan this year, according to internal documents and people familiar with the matter. But the change is causing internal conflict and may lead to further delay.

  • Pons_Aelius
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    Giving something away for free then expecting to make people pay for it is always a winning strategy

    • Dyskolos
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      9 months ago
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      That’s why i stopped using those at all. It’s always the same.

      But screw alexa. Why would i even want a bug sending my voice to some random server? And pay for it? Wouldn’t use that thing if they’d pay me

      • ANON
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        Removed by mod

        • Dyskolos
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          At least they don’t try to make you pay for that :-)

          • ANON
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            Removed by mod

    • Avid Amoeba
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      It works sometimes, when the thing is genuinely useful.

      • Pons_Aelius
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        True but the problem is that they see 1,000,000s of people using the free version and think they are leaving money on the table by not charging and assume ~50% will happily pay for it when the conversion rate from free to paid is usually closer to 1% than it is to 50%.

      • FoxBJKEnglish
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        Or addictive. The first hit’s always free! Get people hooked on Alexa and then tell them it actually costs $10/month to turn your lights off