Amazon's Echo speaker with Alexa was an invention that no customer asked for.

True: accounts of Echo's development show it arose from Amazon's internal initiative (e.g., Bezos's/Lab126 vision) and not from customer requests or demand research asking for a voice-controlled speaker. Mostly true: the product was internally conceived, with minor customer input on features but no customer requests for the product itself. Mixed: the origin was partly internal and partly prompted by identified customer demand. Mostly false: there is substantial evidence of customer demand for such a device that Amazon was responding to. False: the evidence shows Echo was developed in direct response to customer requests for that product.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Jeff Bezos Is 'Fascinating' Because Of 'Inspiration, Intimidation, Invention': Author Brad Stone Talks New Book 'Amazon Unbound' CBS Local (CBS News Detroit) · 17 May 2021

   “I write about the invention of the Alexa and that was kind of invention that sprung right out of his head.”

2. E2 Excerpt from "Amazon Unbound" by Brad Stone Scribd (excerpt of Brad Stone, Amazon Unbound)

   “Over the ensuing months, that amicable consensus devolved into a long-standing tug-of-war between Hart and his engineers, who saw playing music as a practical and marketable feature, and Bezos, who was thinking more grandly.”

3. E3 Excerpt from "Amazon Unbound" by Brad Stone Scribd (excerpt of Brad Stone, Amazon Unbound)

   “Over the next few weeks, a hundred and nine thousand customers registered for the waiting list to receive an Echo.”

Brad Stone, who is independent of Amazon, describes Alexa in his book Amazon Unbound as an invention that "sprung right out of" Bezos's head (E1). Excerpts from the same book describe a long-running internal debate over the device's direction between Hart and his engineers, who favoured music playback as a marketable feature, and Bezos, with no mention of customer requests (E3). The large customer response the book records came only after the Echo was announced (E4). No evidence shows that customers asked for a voice-controlled speaker before development began, so the evidence supports an internally conceived origin as the criteria require. Both independent sources trace back to the same book, so this verdict rests on one account.