Welcome to the Tech Mem ride home for Tuesday, August 15th, 2023. I'm Brian McCullough today.

Very interesting executive departure at Amazon. A popular Mac service is going to launch an

alternative iOS app store. Now nation states are trying to stockpile

invidious chips, not just tech companies, and what is the maximum capacity of your iPhone's battery and should you

check on it? Here's what you missed today in the world of tech.

Amazon Devices and Services Senior Vice President David Limp, who oversees Alexa,

Echo and other products, plans to leave Amazon later this year.

A successor for his position has not been named at the time of this recording.

Now I usually don't always cover executive office shuffle stories but this one is interesting.

Longtime listeners will remember that I'm somewhat worried about the long term survival of Alexa and Echo as products at Amazon.

And yet in this era of generative AI chatbots

can Amazon really walk away from this space?

At the same time, wearables, connectivity, home robotics, home automation.

Those were all under LIMPS purview at Amazon and the rumor is those all lost a total of around $10 billion in total for Amazon last year.

At the same time, Limp's division also houses that Project Coaper Internet from Space Project, which seems to be a major

Amazon priority. So interesting departure in terms of what it may or may not say

for the future of Amazon overall, quoting the journal.

Lymph's planned departure would conclude a tenure of more than 13 years of the company

where he oversees Amazon's Alexa and a portfolio of other services and gadgets

that have in some cases proven popular but overall

have struggled to make money. The Echo Device Line in particular has proven more

challenging to monetize in that way, said people familiar with LIMPS plans.

...