How Amazon won the voice war -- for now

Amazon's Echo and Dot connected speakers are sold out, and 35 new products will have Alexa built-in this year. Did Alexa win over Siri, Cortana and Hey Google? LOS ANGELES -- Apple's Siri has been around five years, but Amazon's Alexa is the coolest kid on the voice- computing block now. At least, so it seemed at this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where many manufacturers touted their Alexa functionality as a major selling for 35 new product introductions, including a car, refrigerator, smartphone, robot, Internet router and vacuum cleaner. "There's a real hunger for the next big thing," says Benedict Evans, a partner with investment firm Andreessen Horowitz. "It was web apps, then bots, and now it's voice interfaces."