Amazon says its Echo devices were hot sellers during its 'best ever' holiday season

Amazon.com Inc.'s Echo voice-activated artificial-intelligence devices were the stars of what the e-commerce behemoth is calling its "best ever" holiday season. Seattle-based Amazon said the Echo family of devices sold by the "millions," at a rate nine times greater than during last year's holiday season. The Echo is a home speaker through which Amazon's customers interface with Alexa, a voice-activated software assistant; it became widely available to U.S. customers in summer 2015. A smaller version, which connects to speakers, is dubbed the Echo Dot; it was unveiled earlier this year. "Echo and Echo Dot were the bestselling products across Amazon this year,," Jeff Wilke, the head of Amazon's consumer division, said in a statement.