While many analysts predicted virtual reality was going to become the biggest items this Christmas, a press release by Amazon illustrates 2016 was the year of virtual assistants.
Christmas maybe over but the party is still getting started for Amazon. The online retail shopping company reported some of the highest number of orders, sales, and Amazon Echo sales in the company’s history.
In fact, Amazon announced that 2016 was the “Best-ever season for Amazon” with the bevy of technological devices including Echo Dot, Amazon Echo, and Amazon Fire.
Amazon revealed that the Echo Dot was the best-selling item on Amazon with millions of units sold worldwide. In addition, sales of the Echo devices increased more than 900% since last year.There were so many Amazon echo orders that the company had “trouble keeping them in stock”.
So what did people do with their Amazon Echo?
According to the press release, Echo owners asked Alexa for “hundreds of thousands” of cocktails with Tom Collins and Manhattans being the most requested drinks. In addition, “Home Alone and “Elf” were the most Alexa requested movies. And the three most requested Christmas songs? “Jingle Bells” by Frank Sinatra, “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey and “Feliz Navidad” by José Feliciano.
This news should not be that surprising as the Internet of Things is becoming more popular among US consumers. An analyst for Oppenheimer reported earlier in December that home assistants would grow to 12 million units during the holidays.
However, Amazon Echo is currently in the middle of a murder trial. Multiple outlets report Arkansas police have issued a warrant to Amazon asking for audio and other Echo related recordings for a murder trial.
Amazon Prime
Outside of Amazon Echo, Amazon had more than billion items shipped around the world with Prime. In addition, more people tried Amazon Prime than any other holiday season. As a matter of fact, the fastest delivery taking place on Christmas Eve. The delivery was so fast it only took took 13 minutes. Furthermore, Amazon.com sold 36 toys per second on a mobile device during Cyber Monday.
Following the news, shares of Amazon were trading up 1.42% on Tuesday.