What to expect from Amazon’s Alexa event on Wednesday

Amazon is hosting an Alexa-focused press event in NYC on Wednesday. Considering the company hasn’t held a major device presser in nearly two years — the last one was September 2023 — we’re expecting some splashy announcements. The event will not be live streamed. However, TechCrunch will be reporting on the ground. The festivities, emceed by Amazon’s new devices and services chief Panos Panay, formerly of Microsoft Surface fame, are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Eastern. The stakes are high for Amazon, which has reportedly lost billions of dollars on its Alexa business despite selling hundreds of millions of devices. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is said to have pushed the company’s hardware team to find ways to boost profits through monetized subscriptions, fees, and other add-on services. We may hear about one of those subscriptions on Wednesday. Amazon reportedly plans to introduce an upgraded Alexa experience, code-named Remarkable Alexa, designed to make interactions with the assistan ... Read full article.