Xbox co-founder J Allard is working on ‘breakthrough’ devices at Amazon

Amazon has a caller ZeroOne squad focused connected “breakthrough” devices, and it’s led by Xbox cofounder and erstwhile Microsoft enforcement J Allard, CNBC reports. Based connected a occupation listing for the team, 1 of those products is simply a astute location device.

J Allard was 1 of the main faces of the archetypal Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles, and during his astir 20-year tenure astatine Microsoft, helium besides worked connected the Zune MP3 player, Kin phones, and Courier tablet prototype. He joined Amazon to absorption connected “new ideas” in precocious 2024.

Job listings for his ZeroOne squad astatine Amazon see elder roles successful applied science, product marketing, and customer insights. The statement for the applied idiosyncratic relation says the idiosyncratic volition enactment connected “a caller smart-home product,” portion the merchandise selling occupation statement vaguely mentions enactment connected “an Amazon device.”

It’s unclear erstwhile a merchandise from ZeroOne mightiness really beryllium released.

Smart location tech isn’t thing caller for Amazon, arsenic the institution already has assorted merchandise lines wrong its Alexa ecosystem, including Echo devices and adjacent different brands it owns similar Blink and Eero. Amazon’s Alexa lawsuit successful February was focused astir solely connected its caller AI-powered Alexa Plus astute assistant; which is still invite-only and carries a $20 per period subscription fee.