Amazon Sees Alexa Devices More Than Double in Just One Year

It took Amazon four years to populate the world with 100 million Alexa-powered devices. It took the company just one more year to more than double that number. From a report: The e-commerce titan announced Monday that there are now “hundreds of millions of Alexa-enabled devices” in customers’ hands worldwide, a massive increase from the 100 million it announced last January. Both figures include Amazon’s own lines of Echo speakers, Fire tablets and Fire TV streamers, as well as third-party devices like lightbulbs, sprinkler systems and motorcycle helmets, showing how much Alexa’s world has broadened. Smart-home engagement with Alexa nearly doubled, too, with people using the voice assistant for smart home controls hundreds of millions of times every week. The company revealed these new milestones at the start of CES, the biggest tech show in the world, where it will present a slew of new partnerships in cars, TVs and connected homes to keep up Alexa’s breakneck growth.