Amazon has long been accused of undermining rivals with its Echo smart speakers, supposedly preventing competitors like Sonos from establishing itself in the market, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that at its full retail price, the company doesn’t is losing nothing. These products.
During today’s big antitrust hearing, where Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also face questions from lawmakers, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD ) asked a one-time question about whether Amazon was pricing its Echo devices. below cost. Possibly this refers to the predatory pricing theory in which a company tries to drive its rivals out of business by selling lossy products, something that Amazon has been specifically accused of, especially with Diapers.com.
Amazon’s Bezos replied that at “its list price,” the company is not losing money on the Echo, suggesting it is breaking even or making a profit. But he also admitted that “sometimes, when it’s on sale, it can be below cost, yes.”
That’s the key, because Amazon’s Echo devices almost always seem to be for sale. Camelcamelcamel.com, which tracks Amazon’s price history for a wide variety of products, suggests devices like Amazon’s Echo Dot and Echo Show be on sale frequently:
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Screenshot of camelcamelcamel
I personally advise people to never buy a full price Echo because there is always a $ 40 discount offer, $ 1 promotion, free gift or BOGO offer just around the corner.
In 2018, ABI Research estimated that an Echo Dot cost $ 31 just for the pieces, suggesting that Amazon would definitely have lost some money at a typical retail price of $ 30. The same company came to a similar conclusion in 2017 as well. .
