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The year 2007 changed the face of the worls as we knew it. I'm not here to debate whether the iPhone was the first of its kind or not, but the fact remains that the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the introduction of its AppStore in 2008 decided what phones in the future were going to look like. For the time, iOS was great, and people were happy. Then came Google, with Android in tow, a war was waged on the smartphone wars, and people were happier still. After smartphones, the reimagination hammer came down on tablets, and once again, Apple led the way, with Microsoft not far behind. After that, smartwatches, and smart TVs, and everything smart, but these didn't really feel 'reinvented' like the original smartphone did. Companies exist to make money, and for that they need to sell the public an idea. The idea that their product is desirable. And so, there was a hole that needed to be filled, a need to introduce a new product category, which would enthral audiences across the world, like smartphones did. It came down to home automation and cars, and since cars were at least a decade away, for now, it was decided, the war would have to be fought on the ground of home automation.

What is home automation anyway? Well, the term is quite self explanatory, but since people tend to reference Jetsons for inspiration in this area, I'll tone down your expectations a bit. What if you could control your lighting through a central source (say, your smartphone)? From outside the house too. Or turn on your car and turn on the heating on it before you get in. Or adjust the thermostat of your house to save electricity while ensuring you were comfortable? And a million other things like this? Basically, home automation is being able to control stuff in your house, stuff that isn't space age, but normal stuff, only this stuff is now connected to the internet, so you can control it (theoretically) from everywhere. And this stuff has intelligent features built into it, so you dont have to do all the work, only some of it. So like a lamer version of what you thought, probably. But still exciting.

The Big Three (Apple, Google and Microsoft) took vastly different approaches to try and gain a foothold in the home. Apple, playing it safe, introduced HomeKit, a home automation framework intimately intertwined with their flagship product the iPhone. Microsoft in its part decided to stuff the XBox, its incredibly popular game console, with voice support and 'Universal apps', things which pointed to a major home automation push, and Google, in its usual quirky way, decided to throw everything and the kitchen sink to see what stuck, buying Nest (a popular Home Automation company of sorts) for $3.2 billion, introducing Android@Home, a framework similar to HomeKit, among other approaches, none of which was a roaring success.

Technically, Amazon threw its hat in the ring too, though nobody noticed, or frankly, cared. There were a variety of reasons for this. For one, Amazon had always thrown its hat into the ring, and their products had almost always done poorly. The Fire Tablets sold a decent number, but only because they were priced incredibly cheaply. The Fire Phone, Amazon's first entry into the smartphone market, with bizarre gimmicks and a hefty price, failed so spectacularly that they never released a successor. Apart from their ebook readers, Amazon had never really had a successful consumer facing product, and this adversely affected their new products too, perhaps playing a role in their eventual failure.

Other problems existed too. That it was available only in North America, and for a fairly expensive price, didn't do it any favours. Added to that, it seemed like an incredibly *odd* device. Reviewers were stumped about what its actual purpose was. They decided it was a mashup of random features, and mostly wrote it off as another failure from the ecommerce giant. Of course, this was because Amazon hadn't really bothered to tell anyone the point of the product, and decided this time it was better to walk the talk rather than make half promises, as is the norm in the industry now*. And with the Echo, Amazon proved once again to its detractors, that it knew what it was doing.

So, what *is* the Amazon Echo? Amazon sold it as a bluetooth speaker, with a voice controlled smart assistant (think Siri, or Cortana) built into it. Except, the speaker wasn't exactly of stellar quality, and it wasn't for travel, since it had to be plugged in and be connected to the internet to work. Why would someone pay $179 to choose a bluetooth speaker of dubious quality, whose 'USP' was a personal assistant, which was already available on most people's phones? Nobody knew.

But all of this was by design. Amazon didn't intend for the Echo to be a bluetooth speaker at all. Amazon had added the (almost bizarre) requirements of always being plugged in and connected for a reason. The Echo has to be plugged in to ensure that you don't have to worry about its battery percentage, or charging it. Unlike your phones, the Echo houses an array of mics which are able to recognise what you're saying to it from across the house. Also, Alexa (what Amazon christened its voice controlled personal assistant) doesn't really live on the Echo, you see. It is housed somewhere on the cloud, so updating it is a breeze for Amazon. And update it, they do. The Echo recieves an update every single week, which shows Amazon's commitment to the platform

Thanks to a torrent of unabated updates by Amazon, the Echo has graduated to a whole different product compared to what it was on its launch. The bluetooth speaker part is essentially a non-feature. The interesting part is the tie ins. Controlled just by voice, you can perform a slew of 'smartphone things', like ask about the weather, add reminders and timers, ask about random people's heights (a somewhat peculiar feature that most assistants seem to highlight, as if it was the pinnacle of intelligence) are supported on your phone, but seldom work. Changing songs, adding stuff in your todo list, using spotify, calling an uber, etc. are also supported, without having to meddle in a hundred apps. And then there are the smart home features. Amazon supports an ever increasing range of smart accessories, from light fixures (control your lights brighness, colours etc), outlets and switches (electric blankets, coffee makers etc.) to smart thermostats (The nest being the most popular of them), and many other such things. Amazon has also released an API for developers, which means that this feature set is only going to explode in depth and size.

But here's the *main* differentiator. Unlike competing technologies, people actually use the Echo. That's because you don't have to pull out your phone, then check for a decent internet connection, or any of the hassles usually associated with using a personal assistant. If you're in the house, it'll work. It can't get much moore easier than shouting out a query. A standalone device for doing this stuff makes sense. Amazon, emboldened with it's success, has now released two new variants of the Echo, the Echo dot and the Echo Tap, both of which build upon the successes of the original Echo. Critics have stubbornly come around, reviewers who trashed the Echo now rave about it, and for the functionality it provides, most people consider the price pretty cheap.