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Amazon has reportedly discontinued the Tap, one of the very first versions of its Echo smart speaker, according to Voicebot.ai.
For context, the Amazon Tap is similar in appearance to the early generations of its flagship Echo speakers; however, unlike the rest of the Echo products, the Tap is battery-powered and thus designed for portability.
Moreover, as the name suggests, users can tap the top of the device to activate the Alexa voice assistant. Amazon ran out of stock for the device earlier this year, and at the time, specified that on its site. But, earlier this week, a query from GeekWire found the device wasn't listed on Amazon at all, suggesting the online retailer has sunset the Tap entirely.
The Amazon Tap launched back in early 2016, but the online retail giant never released a second generation of the device. The Tap was introduced alongside the first-generation Echo Dot, at a price of $129, compared with $80 for the Dot. The Echo products broadly have caught on with consumers, especially the Dot and flagship Echo.
The Echo Dot, for example, was one of the best-selling products on Amazon during Thanksgiving weekend last month. The devices’ immense popularity — which has helped deliver the company the largest share of the US smart speaker market — led Amazon to release new generations of the speakers. The flagship Echo is now on its second generation, and the Dot is on its third. Amazon never released a new-generation Tap, however, which suggests the now seemingly defunct device never gained much traction.
Eliminating the Tap would be in line with Amazon's "Alexa Everywhere" strategy. In the time since the Echo products were launched and caught on, Amazon has moved beyond the speakers and toward building an ecosystem with the Alexa voice assistant at its center. Today, Alexa can be found in products such as thermostats, fridges, connected cars, TVs, and even third-party speakers like Facebook's Portal.
As of September, there were a whopping 20,000 third-party Alexa-enabled devices, which is about double the number of third-party devices with Google's Assistant. Building out this ecosystem of Alexa-powered devices to maximize consumers' exposure to its voice assistant has likely rendered the portability of the Tap irrelevant, as Alexa can now be found in many different places as users move throughout their lives.
The company's apparent decision to abandon the portable Tap thus highlights its focus on getting Alexa into more third-party devices, so that it can increase the number of touchpoints that draw a user back into its ecosystem without much effort.
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