Amazon Prepares for Apple and Google Competition With Home Devices Push

Amazon.com Inc., girding for competition from Apple Inc. and Google in the race to equip homes with smart devices, unveiled a slew of consumer gadgets including an Alexa-powered digital-home hub, a smaller and cheaper Echo speaker and a new mini Echo with a screen, called Spot.

Though hardware products aren’t key to Amazon’s bottom line, they serve as important conduits for popularizing and expanding the Alexa voice-based digital assistant, which is integrated into the latest devices. The gadgets with screens also provide a platform for customers to view content like movies and books from Amazon Prime, the $99-a-year membership that does contribute to profits. As an e-commerce giant, Amazon aims to give consumers the ability to buy items on its website from any of their devices, and without its own smartphones Alexa drives that effort.