It's been a good year for the Amazon Echo

Amazon remains an e-commerce company at its core, but like any tech giant, it's put its fingers in many other pies over the years. Some of its attempts have been disasters. Others are bona fide smash hits. The biggest surprise, though, continues to be the Amazon Echo -- the family of smart speakers that, along with its Alexa voice assistant, has steadily put Amazon in a leading position within the Internet of Things and the burgeoning consumer market for artificial intelligence. As this chart from Statista shows, the Echo only gained momentum in 2016.