Xbox cofounder joins Amazon to lead ZeroOne in an attempt to create ‘breakthrough' consumer products
Amazon is once again taking a shot at creating revolutionary consumer products—this time more seriously—with a new team called ZeroOne, led by J Allard, who helped create the Xbox game console.
According to CNBC, Allard has been tasked with developing 'breakthrough' consumer products. The ZeroOne team is spread across Seattle, San Francisco, and Sunnyvale, California, and is focused on both hardware and software projects, based on multiple job postings.
Listings for the ZeroOne team at Amazon include senior roles in applied science, product marketing, and customer insights. The description for the applied scientist role notes that the position will work on 'a new smart-home product,' while the product marketing role vaguely refers to work on 'an Amazon device.'
Amazon has a mixed record when it comes to creating hardware products, with more misses than hits over the years. While the company has delivered knockout successes like the Kindle and Echo smart speakers, it has also produced flops such as the Fire Phone, the Halo fitness tracker, and the Astro household robot in recent years.
The e-commerce giant has a separate devices unit responsible for creating hardware products such as Kindles, Fire TV Sticks, and Echo speakers. In fact, many of Amazon's successful devices have come from Lab126, the company's hardware research and development unit based in Silicon Valley.
Two years ago, Amazon brought in Microsoft alum Panos Panay to lead its Devices & Services (D&S) business. Panay had been with Microsoft for over 19 years, serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, where he led the Windows + Devices division. During his time at Microsoft, he played a critical role in the development of Surface computers—Microsoft's answer to Apple's Mac.
Panos's move to Amazon surprised many in Silicon Valley. He replaced Amazon's former hardware chief, Dave Limp, who became the CEO of Jeff Bezos' other company, the aerospace outfit Blue Origin.
Under Panos, Amazon's only major new hardware releases have been the updated Kindle lineup announced last year, including a version with colour e-ink. Panos was the face of the product launch event, and earlier this year, he appeared again during the debut of the long-delayed Alexa Plus voice assistant.
Today marks the anniversary of a gaming revolution! 🎮 On November 15, 2001, the original Xbox was released in the USA, bringing us iconic games like Halo and changing the landscape of console gaming forever. Here's to the console that dared to innovate and brought online gaming… pic.twitter.com/TglfNRwK6d
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Allard has joined Amazon after spending 19 years at Microsoft, where he was most recently the technology chief of consumer products—a role he left in 2010—at a time when the Seattle-based tech company desperately needed a new hit hardware product that could match the success of the Kindle.
Allard was a key architect of the Xbox game console and also worked on Zune, a new type of MP3 player from Microsoft that ultimately failed to compete with Apple's iPod.
Allard has experience in creating new hardware, though it remains to be seen what he will do next at Amazon. It's also unclear when a product from ZeroOne might actually be shipped to consumers.
Allard's joining Amazon comes at a crucial time, as the company's devices unit has faced layoffs over the past few years. This year alone, Amazon laid off 100 employees from the devices unit.
Anuj Bhatia is a personal technology writer at indianexpress.com who has been covering smartphones, personal computers, gaming, apps, and lifestyle tech actively since 2011. He specialises in writing longer-form feature articles and explainers on trending tech topics. His unique interests encompass delving into vintage tech, retro gaming and composing in-depth narratives on the intersection of history, technology, and popular culture. He covers major international tech conferences and product launches from the world's biggest and most valuable tech brands including Apple, Google and others. At the same time, he also extensively covers indie, home-grown tech startups. Prior to joining The Indian Express in late 2016, he served as a senior tech writer at My Mobile magazine and previously held roles as a reviewer and tech writer at Gizbot. Anuj holds a postgraduate degree from Banaras Hindu University. You can find Anuj on Linkedin.
Email: anuj.bhatia@indianexpress.com ... Read More
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