We have a show that was a gift. It is unplugged 95% of the time exactly because of this reason. We only plug it in when we are using it and even then, I'll occasionally see an ad and immediately unplug it.
This device is really just an ad delivery mechanism. Hard anti-recommendation from me, and that's before getting into the frustration that is Alexa.
You are 100% right. We have the previous "biggest" Echo Show display prominently mounted in the kitchen. Up until about a month ago, we just had the annoyance of periodically having to go in and disable some new "channel" that would be automatically added to the rotation of content on the screen, but OK. Now, however, it shows Amazon product ads in the rotation and that can't be turned off. Plus, the device is now discontinued so leaving a bad review will do nothing. I am definitely not getting any more Echo devices any time soon, and especially never buying a "screen" one again.
Exactly this. I’m, for better or for worse, pretty dependent on Echo for voice control of my lighting and sound system.
But I’ll never buy one with a screen again after having them co-opt my other Shows. The screens barely add any value, but they mainline ads into your home.
Amazon has clearly demonstrated for decades now that design is not in their DNA. Amazon.com, mobile apps, Prime Video, AWS, their design has always been borderline good enough to not be problematic, I've never seen a "beautiful" Amazon design, and I've seen several that have made the products actively harder to use.
It's clearly something the entire organisation doesn't value, and in many ways that's fine. It's a trade-off that they have made one way consistently, and I applaud them for the consistency. To look at it another way, Apple are similarly consistent in the opposite direction and sometimes to their detriment.
The problem is that I don't want to hang an ugly webapp on my wall, and I imagine I'm not the only one. This is something where design is so intrinsically linked to its value that I don't think Amazon can manage it.
Just on the first product photo there are like 3-4 different drop shadows on 7 boxes. The weather is shown in two different places. Half the screen is an ad.
I'm not sure if the demand is for larger and larger smart displays. It seems like the trend is integration of smart displays in seemingly inconspicuous ways that make daily tasks just a bit easier.
