The iMicrowave

[Bloomberg] [Fully Charged]( From [Bloomberg](   [FOLLOW US [Facebook Share]]( [Twitter Share]( [SUBSCRIBE [Subscribe]](  Hey y’all, it’s Austin. The tech giants once again descended on CES in Las Vegas last week to duke it out for the crown of Gadget King. But Amazon.com Inc. appeared determined to the steal the show. The company’s popular Alexa virtual assistant found its voice in a cornucopia of product announcements—its call-and-response capabilities are now integrated in everything from toilets to crock pots and kitchen faucets—while Amazon and team showed off new door cameras, smart lights and smoke alarms, as well as the latest iteration of Amazon Key, its smart-lock system. At a time when many are calling for Apple Inc. to adopt more Amazon-like software and services (my colleague Brad Stone recently penned a newsletter arguing that Cupertino needs its own version of Prime), it’s worth reflecting on the ways in which Apple could also learn from Amazon’s hardware playbook. It has been remarkable watching Amazon fully embrace its product DNA, a spaghetti-on-the-wall approach to gadget development that represents the complete opposite of Apple’s minimalist mindset. The e-commerce behemoth has proved willing to slap its brand name on products Apple would likely never touch. But this avalanche of gadgetry seems to be winning consumers over. Just this past week, Amazon announced that more than 100 million Alexa devices have been sold. Its Fire TV hit is used by over 30 million people. And the company’s new Echo Auto, an Alexa for your car, received more than a million preorders. Demonstrating how serious Jeff Bezos is about pursuing this strategy, Amazon hired a Walt Disney Co. vet to head up a new Alexa Gadgets product division. Not long ago, the promise of “gadgets”—synonymous with hobbyist electronics, nerdom and SkyMall catalogs—seemed to be fading. Apple, with its high design and less-is-more hardware, was teaching the tech industry a better way forward. Everyone wanted to be like Apple, even Amazon. In 2014, Bezos introduced its high-end iPhone competitor, the Fire Phone. The device was a disaster, and many skeptics, me included, thought Amazon would give up on its hardware ambitions altogether. Bezos, instead, went in a surprising direction: lower-cost gizmos. Tons of them. Bizarre ones like Alexa-enabled microwaves and $29 wall clocks. Endless Echos and Kindles. Security systems and cameras and hi-fi stereo systems. Magnetic Dash buttons for one-press ordering. And as Bloomberg reported last April, the company has even been working on [robots for the home of tomorrow](.  Whereas Apple’s product strategy is famously defined by “a thousand noes for every yes,” Bezos’s approach now almost feels like “a thousand yeses for every no.” This isn’t always a good thing; Amazon’s gadgets, at times, feel gimmicky, ugly, or downright confounding. But the sheer breadth of their products has won me over, and I’m often shocked at how ubiquitous Amazon’s hardware has become in my life, in some cases supplanting my Apple device needs, the Echo especially. Though I’m generally anti-gadget, I’ll even admit to once purchasing a $4.99 Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dash button. (I consume a lot of mac and cheese.) What I appreciate most in Amazon’s hardware is the company’s risk-taking and willingness to explore wildly new categories, even at the risk of some embarrassing flops. Such unpredictability feels refreshing for what is now the most valuable company in the world; it’s as if Amazon is launching perpetual Kickstarter-style projects, delivering not “just one more thing” but “just a hundred more things.” I wonder if Apple could benefit from taking a cue from Amazon’s gadget ethos. Apple’s portfolio of hardware products is no doubt beautiful, but some of its latest offerings, the HomePod and Watch especially, haven’t inspired the fanboy love of previous flagship products. In Jony Ive speak, their designs feel “inevitable,” and I’m increasingly not sure if that’s a positive, particularly if that becomes synonymous with being predictable. That’s not to imply Apple needs a booth at CES, or an iMicrowave. But the company needs to break from its hardware monotony, even if thinking different means thinking more like Amazon. —[Austin Carr](mailto:acarr54@bloomberg.net)  And here’s what you need to know in global technology news Huawei is facing renewed scrutiny abroad, as an employee of the telecom giant is [arrested in Poland]( on suspicion of spying for China.  Apple’s China woes continue, as top online retailers [slash iPhone prices](. The moves signal weakening demand for the flagship device in the world’s largest smartphone market. The company reportedly aims to introduce [three new iPhone models]( by the year’s end.  Slack plans to follow Spotify in its nontraditional IPO model. The business-software company is looking to hold a [direct listing of its shares]( this year.  AT&T said it will stop selling phone location data to third parties. The decision follows the latest [uproar over customer privacy](, the Washington Post reported.   Sponsor Content by Capital One What does it take to move a Fortune 500 bank to the cloud? Going all-in on the public cloud requires a complete rethink of your approach to IT. So that's what we’re doing at Capital One. We're not just adapting to the cloud; we're changing everything to become a cloud-native company. [Learn about Capital One's transition to the public cloud.](   You received this message because you are subscribed to the Bloomberg Technology newsletter Fully Charged. You can tell your friends to [sign up here](.  [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022