Amazon Joins the Race for "What's Next" After the iPhone
Annie Palmer
It should be no surprise that basically every large tech company is pushing to build "what's next" in consumer products – that's always sort of the job. But it is interesting how many specific projects seem to be coalescing right now. Undoubtedly a big part of that is AI, the proverbial next "platform shift". And the latest entrant? Amazon:
Amazon’s devices unit has a new team tasked with inventing “breakthrough” consumer products that’s being led by a former Microsoft executive who helped create the Xbox.
The ZeroOne team is spread across Seattle, San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California, and is focused on both hardware and software projects, according to job postings from the past month. The name is a nod to its mission of developing emerging product ideas from conception to launch, or “zero to one.”
As to that "former Microsoft executive", it feels like we're in a bit of a "Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time..." renaissance at the moment. Earlier this week came a mention of former Apple executive Scott Forstall, advising The Browser Company on building their web browser for the future. Now, "there is another":
The new group is being led by J Allard, who spent 19 years at Microsoft, most recently as technology chief of consumer products, a role he left in 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was a key architect of the Xbox game console, as well as the Zune, a failed iPod competitor.
Allard joined Amazon in September, and the company confirmed at the time that he would be part of the devices and services team under Panos Panay, who left Microsoft for Amazon in 2023 to lead the group.
The Allard move was actually more quietly reported on back in October of last year – namely because his name hadn't really come up in the almost 15 years since he left Microsoft and all of a sudden here he was getting pulled back into the thick of things by Panay. Or, at least, the potential thick of things – you'll note that this report doesn't specifically mention "AI" anywhere. But come on, obviously.
First of all, Panay's main task right now is Alexa+ – specifically rebooting Amazon's early lead in voice-based computing into the age of AI, notably with devices. It has been a bumpy ride so far, but at least they're out of the gate – well, sort of – which is more than Apple can say. Second, a couple of the job listings for ZeroOne that CNBC pulled reference "computer vision techniques" and "smart home". It doesn't feel like a stretch to think the team is working on devices around AI, even if they may still be in experimental mode.
And that would follow Meta, OpenAI/IO, and even Apple who are all said to be hard at work on newfangled devices built around AI. A wearable? A non-wearable? A robot? A tabletop arm thing? Who knows – perhaps not even them yet.
Beyond the AI moment, all of this movement also seems tied to the fact that the iPhone – and smartphones in general – are starting to feel a bit long in the tooth. People are perhaps primed for that "what's next". Which is a billion times easier said than done, of course. But Allard has a good pedigree – even the Zune, which we all make fun of now, was a pretty good device and ahead of its time in ways. It just tried to fast-follow the iPod without a lot of Apple's built-in strengths in consumer. And it came in brown.
Could be worse. Could have been the Fire Phone. Let's not do that again, Amazon.
One more thing: while not mentioned here, another product Allard was tied to at Microsoft was another project that was apparently beloved internally (and somewhat externally, thanks to leaks and concept previews): Courier. A tablet prototype that never saw the light of day. Are Panay and Allard re-teaming to try to capture some of the magic Microsoft was never able to there?1
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
M.G. Siegler
1 Undoubtedly not, the world has moved on, but again, they came up with some interesting concepts, at least...