It's great to see Amazon using its huge profits to fund this kind of bleeding edge technology. (Maybe someday engineers will figure out how to squeeze this functionality into handheld devices.)
Surely it's just "ok google" or "siri" in a tabletop device. We already have this as an app in our phones. Doesn't seem to be a technological move forward just a re-packaging of currently available ideas.
The big idea here though is that Amazon can get entrenched as the first such domestic fixed device and then control the fulfilment for the shopping/wish/gift lists you make using their device.
Not an accountant, but I believe Amazon's "weak" profits are due to they reinvesting their profits back into the business, rather than accumulating cash.
The sarcasm doesn't make sense to me, because that's exactly what Amazon is doing (judgements on what's "bleeding edge" aside). Amazon could easily have massive profits if they weren't reinvesting it all.
