David Limp has overseen Amazon’s devices for the past 13 years. He has led Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Alexa and other tech products. He will be stepping down later this year, and Amazon will announce a successor for his position. I met him several times in off-the-book meetings; he has been developing and shipping consumer electronics for over 30 years.
The Amazon devices division currently employs 10,000 people. These staff are responsible for the Alexa, Kindle, Fire TV, Ring, Echo, Amazon Earbuds and Fire Tablet devices. These products could be more profitable, losing $5 billion annually in the past few years. Most of these devices are loss leaders because Amazon typically subsidizes the cost to gain market share. However, this space has more competition, and Amazon has yet to have the power it once had. The Kindle is still the world’s most popular e-reader. Still, there is plenty of connected speakers and TV integration from Roku, Apple and Google, and the tablet space is heavily saturated.
Amazon.com is now severely reviewing its unprofitable businesses, including the devices unit that houses voice assistant Alexa, to cut costs. Following a months-long review, Amazon has told employees in some unprofitable units to look for jobs elsewhere in the company while moving to redeploy staff from specific teams to more profitable areas and closing sections in areas such as robotics and retail. Amazon has slashed around 27,000 roles, as CEO Andy Jassy has implemented cost-cutting measures amid economic headwinds.
In a blog post on the Amazon website, Limp stated, ” It’s time. I have been doing a version of this job (building and shipping consumer electronics) on and off for 30+ years. I love it, but I also want look into the future through a different lens. I am not sure what that future is right now, with the notable exception that it won’t be in the consumer electronics space. I will be around for a few more months, and we have a lot to deliver on with our fall products. Given that, you should expect the same bug reports from me for a little while more.”
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.