亞馬遜的Echo音箱在近些年來獲得了各種贊譽——實用、討人喜歡、便宜，但說到音質，容易讓人聯想到刮玻璃的聲音。

這家電商巨頭希望在11月7日改變這一現狀，屆時，兼容Alexa的最新音箱Echo Studio將與世人見面。這個8.1英寸高、6.9英寸長的圓柱形音箱能夠播放明亮的高音、渾厚的中音和澎湃的低音，它足以打動音頻達人，填滿一臥室的公寓更是不在話下。亞馬遜Echo和Alexa設備業務副總裁米利阿姆·丹尼爾稱，實現這一目標一直是亞馬遜長期計劃的一部分，而這距離亞馬遜推出第一代Echo音箱已經過去了近五年的時間。

丹尼爾說：“高品質音質不應只是少數精英人士的專屬，這些人會花費成百上千美元，有時候可能是十幾萬美元，來獲得某種沉浸式體驗。”

雖說如此，但我們難以確定Echo Studio在銷量方面是否能夠與蘋果的HomePod以及Sonos One抗衡。不過這款高端產品的定價為199美元，相當給力，亞馬遜在2007年發行首款Kindle電子書時便已奉行這一定價理念。因為亞馬遜一再強調，公司的意圖并不是從硬件方面賺錢，而是培養使用亞馬遜服務的群體。（在歷史上，亞馬遜一直依靠其他業務盈利，例如Amazon Web Services。）

這也是為什么亞馬遜最近的產品聲明給人留下深刻印象的原因。當然，這里也有一些新品，例如Echo Studio、Echo Show 8和帶表盤的Echo Dot。但真正吸引眼球的是亞馬遜更具野心的設備：基于Bose技術的降噪耳機Echo Buds、整合了Alexa的眼鏡Echo Frame，以及通過點擊按鈕就可以啟動Alexa的古怪指環EchoLoop。無論它們今后在市場上的表現如何，但這些設備都在響亮而又清晰地宣講著亞馬遜更加宏偉的藍圖，即將其服務延伸至每一個家庭、每一輛汽車和每一個人。

丹尼爾在談論9月25日內容豐富的聲明時表示：“當你開始思考哪些構成因子可能較為合適時，我們發現每個人的構成因子不盡相同。”

她說，人們希望Alexa無處不在，不管是在車里、在外步行，還是搭乘公交、遛狗或上班。當他們進入這些空間時，他們希望Alexa能夠提醒他們把垃圾扔了，或從干洗店把衣服拿回來。

自從Alexa于2014年面世以來，亞馬遜和它的合作伙伴已經銷售了超過1億臺可以使用Alexa的設備，包括無線音箱、智能鐘表、恒溫器，甚至是芳香散發器和馬桶。同樣，這家位于西雅圖的科技巨人也一直在積極地拓展Alexa的功能，將其“技能”或會執行的任務數量翻了一番。在今年9月，這個語音助手會執行的語音同比增長了10萬個。這些新技能包括：講述并理解印度最流行的語言印度語，幫助Alexa用戶向其選擇的美國總統候選人捐錢。

但隨著Alexa的熱度不斷上升，隱私顧慮也是越來越突出，其導火索是2018年3月的Cambridge Analytical公司丑聞。當時，業界首次披露投票分析公司Cambridge Analytica在未經用戶同意的情況下搜集了8,700萬Facebook用戶的個人數據。與此同時，亞馬遜在過去也因為把Alexa用戶語音錄音和文本檔案用于機器學習目的而遭到了批評。

9月25日，隱私再次成為了主旋律，亞馬遜的高級副總裁大衛·林普強調，隱私是亞馬遜一切業務的“絕對基石”，包括軟件、硬件和服務。例如，公司新推出的Echo Show 8繼承了其前任Echo Show 5的功能，內置了能夠遮住攝像頭的擋板。同樣，公司還宣布了“自動刪除”功能，它將在3至18個月后自動刪除錄制的視頻。

丹尼爾說：“隱私并非是因為東窗事發或有人在某個網站寫了一篇博客之后我們所采取的補救措施。在我們一開始推出這個項目時，我們已經盡可能地去思考所有的政策、商戶以及應該到位的管控。但我們在過去四年中還學到了不少東西，而且也加強了管控。”

丹尼爾說，亞馬遜的這項使命遠未實現。“我們將繼續關注如何提升透明度，如何將更多的管控下放給客戶，以及如何讓客戶感到他們可以信任我們提供的方案。”（財富中文網）

譯者：馮豐

審校：夏林

Amazon Echo speakers have been described in different ways over the years—useful, pleasing, affordable—but premium-sounding? Cue the record-scratch.

The e-commerce giant hopes to change that tune on Nov. 7, when the newest Alexa-compatible speaker, the Echo Studio, arrives. An 8.1-inch tall, 6.9-inch long cylindrical speaker capable of piping out audio with crisp highs, solid mid-range and booming bass, the Echo Studio could be enough to impress the audio elite, not to mention rattle the walls of a one-bedroom apartment. And getting to this point, nearly five years after Amazon launched the first Echo speaker, was part of Amazon’s longer-term plan all along, says Miriam Daniel, Amazon vice president of Echo and Alexa devices.

“Premium audio shouldn’t just be for the elite few who can spend hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars or tens of thousands of dollars, in some cases, to have that sort of an immersive experience,” says Daniel.

That may be, but it’s yet unclear how the Echo Studio will sell against rivals like Apple’s HomePod and the Sonos One. It certainly will help that Amazon has priced its high-end model at $199—a pricing philosophy the company has stuck to since it began selling the first Kindle e-reader in 2007. As Amazon has said time and again, the company is less about making a money on its hardware and more about growing the number of people who use its Amazon services. (Historically, Amazon has leaned on its other business units, like Amazon Web Services, to generate profits.)

That’s why Amazon’s recent product announcement was memorable. Sure, there were updates, such as Echo Studio, the Echo Show 8, and the Echo Dot with clock. But the wide eyes were on Amazon’s more ambitious devices: the Bose-backed, noise-reducing Echo Buds, a pair of Alexa-integrated eyeglasses dubbed Echo Frames, and the wacky Echo Loop, a ring that summons Alexa with the tap of a button. However they do on the market, these devices will speak loudly and clearly to Amazon’s grander ambitions of extending its reach into every home, every car and onto everybody.

“When you set about thinking about what form factors might make sense, we found that it’s not always one form factor for everyone,” Daniel says, talking about September 25’s wide-ranging announcement.

People want Alexa everywhere, she says, whether they’re in the car, walking outside, on public transit, walking their dog, or going to work. And when they’re in those spaces, they might want to ask Alexa to remind themselves to put the trash out or pick up their clothes from the dry cleaners.

Since Alexa launched in 2014, Amazon and its partners have sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices, including wireless speakers, smart locks, thermostats, even aroma diffusers and toilets. Likewise, the Seattle tech giant has been aggressive in expanding what Alexa can do, doubling the number of “skills,” or tasks, the voice assistant can perform year-over-year to 100,000 this September. Among its newest skills: speaking and understanding Hindi, India’s most popular language, and helping Alexa users donate to their U.S. presidential candidate of choice.

But as Alexa’s popularity has risen, so have privacy concerns, ignited by the Cambridge Analytical scandal in March 2018, in which it was first revealed that 87 million Facebook users had their personal data collected by voting profiling firm Cambridge Analytica without their consent. Amazon, meanwhile, has been criticized in the past for keeping voice recordings and text transcripts of Alexa user requests for machine-learning purposes.

On September 25, privacy played a key role once again, with senior vice president of Amazon devices Dave Limp emphasizing that privacy was “absolutely foundational” to everything Amazon does in software, hardware and services. Its new Echo Show 8, for instance, includes a built-in shutter to cover the video camera—a feature carried over from its predecessor, the Echo Show 5. Likewise, the also company announced “auto delete,” a feature that automatically deletes video records after three or 18 months.

“Privacy has not been an afterthought just because there’s an incident here or somebody writes a blog somewhere,” says Daniel. “We tried to imagine as best as we could all the policies, tenants, and controls that we should put in place when we first launched. But we’ve also learned over the last four years, and tightened things up.”

And Amazon is by no means done, Daniel adds. “We’ll continue to be on the lookout for how to be more transparent, how to give more control to the customers, and how to make the customers feel like they can trust the solutions we bring to them.”