Amazon’s secret war on Android: The company has a plan to cure Alexa’s addiction to Google’s operating system
Tech
By Eugene Kim
Amazon’s Alexa division is cutting costs across the board, having laid off thousands of employees and reshuffled projects over the past 18 months. One key part of that plan is to unify Alexa’s backend technology, which will result in some devices moving off of the Android-based operating system the company has used for years.
Internally named “Unified Alexa Device Software,” the project aims to deliver a single Alexa Device Software codebase to reduce operational costs and address performance issues. The team expects to save almost 50% of its overhead costs once completed, leading to a faster rollout of Alexa features and improved customer experience.
The move is part of a larger revamp of the Alexa business following significant losses. Amazon has been scrutinizing every business unit’s performance lately, with more than 27,000 corporate employees losing jobs since 2022. The efficiency drive has been well-received on Wall Street, with Amazon’s stock up 85% in the past year.
In an email to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesperson stated that the change in Alexa’s technology was part of a regular review process and not a massive cost-cutting campaign.
With the unified Alexa backend, Amazon plans to use a new homegrown operating system named Vega for voice assistants, smart TVs, and wearable devices. The company hopes this initiative will reduce feature-parity gaps among different devices, improve performance, and lower development costs.
While Amazon is reducing its reliance on the Android-based Fire OS with the new Vega OS, the move is not motivated by ditching Google’s technology. Instead, it aims to be more efficient with resources and improve performance.
Amazon is also set to reduce investment in tablets with Alexa capabilities due to low usage. The company wants to build a lighter version of Alexa on tablets to support fewer features. Similarly, investment in the home robot Astro will be reduced due to low engagement levels.
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