Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling
Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home &#x27;smartbox&#x27; that Amazon popularized with Alexa.<p>We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I&#x27;m now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa&#x27;s existence.  Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me.<p>Essentially, you&#x27;ve now opened up the possibility of exposing a lot of the latest tech to a new demographic of people that probably were &#x27;too old&#x27; to &#x27;get it&#x27;, or not tech savvy enough to use it.  The combination of a voice interface (not perfect, but improving) with access to all the latest web services spanning music, telephony, email, todo lists, home automation, etc is huge.  I can now actually envision my parents, or even grandparents using services like Spotify, Podcasts, Connected Calendars, VOIP, and any number of things that the tech savvy take for granted through their phones or other devices.<p>Circling back to my first statement about Apple; the quintessential consumer oriented tech company.  The company that&#x27;s supposed to make all things nasty and complicated into things that are simple and accessible.  How did Apple who already had Apple TV (home box), Siri (voice interface), Itunes (music and app ecosystem), Icloud( ugh.. but still integrated personal mgmt) and FaceTime (VOIP) not come up with this sooner.  Or at least, once they saw Alexa gaining popularity not just bundle up their services and release it.  Apple typically is late to the party with a more refined product, but Amazon is executing at an impressive rate these days and it&#x27;s getting harder to see how Apple can close the gap.