Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Check the full post for an insightful survey of recent OS/platform history; tangentially, see Mattel Is Building An Alexa For Kids (Fast Company), which notes "It's an AI to help raise your child"

"In short, Amazon is building the operating system of the home — its name is Alexa — and it has all of the qualities of an operating system you might expect:

•  All kinds of hardware manufacturers are lining up to build Alexa-enabled devices, and will inevitably compete with each other to improve quality and lower prices. 

• Even more devices and appliances are plugging into Alexa’s easy-to-use and flexible framework, creating the conditions for a moat: appliances are a lot more expensive than software, and lot longer lasting, which means everyone who buys something that works with Alexa is much less likely to switch"

Alexa: Amazon’s Operating System – Stratechery by Ben Thompson