I don't really understand the value behind this. It seems like voice recognition is the main feature behind it, but that doesn't create a reason for a product to exist. It's basically my smartphone, except I can't carry it in my pocket everywhere.

Even if the voice recognition is fantastic, it can't actually do anything useful. It's like selling a keyboard that doesn't work with any home computer or device. Maybe if I could control practically EVERYTHING with my voice, this would be neat, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can I write an email with this? Control appliances? Voice control by itself isn't so amazing that I'll switch to a product inferior in its other features. What if I want to play/pause a song without speaking? Pick an artist and look through the albums or track titles? Read a wikipedia article and follow links to other related articles?

It's a (supposedly) superior way to access a limited amount of inferior applications. It's not a voice controller, which I would love to buy. It's a mediocre product which happens to have a voice interface.

Also, "Alexa, alarm off." really? You're telling me now I don't even have to roll over and smack something to sleep through my alarm clock?

Depending on the sound quality, I could possibly see it being useful as a fancy wireless speaker. But that's about it.