Amazon fall hardware event is often where it unveils oddball products such as the Alexa microwave and sticky note printer. This year, the e-commerce giant stuck mainly to more practical devices: a large Kindle e-reader with note-taking capabilities, a sleep-tracking bedside alarm clock and Echo speakers that can boost your Wi-Fi network.
Amazon’s strategy has typically been to use its device announcements to do market research about a product’s viability. A year ago, the company announced a home robot named Astro that it has yet to make widely available to all consumers. The same goes for a flying indoor security camera unveiled two years ago.