Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | |
Founded | 2004 |
Headquarters | 1100 Enterprise Way, Sunnyvale, California 94089 [1] , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | |
Products | |
Number of employees | 3,000 [3] |
Parent | Amazon |
Website | lab126.com |
Amazon Lab126 [4] (sometimes known as Lab126) is an American research and development and computer hardware company owned by Amazon.com. [5] It was founded in 2004 by Gregg Zehr, [6] previously Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Palm, and is based in Sunnyvale, California. [7] It is widely known for developing Amazon's Kindle line of e-readers and tablets. [8] [9] [10]
Lab126's name derives from the arrow in Amazon's logo, which points from A to Z—the 1st and 26th letters in the English language alphabet. [11] [6]
In 2007, after three years of research and development by Lab126, the Amazon Kindle e-reader was released. Newer models of the Kindle continue to be released, with the latest model called the Kindle Oasis in mid-2016. [12]
In 2011, Lab126 released the Kindle Fire tablet; in 2012, they released two new models of the Fire tablet called the Kindle Fire HD. [13] In 2013, it released the Fire HDX, a high-end tablet. [14]
In 2014, Lab126 released the Amazon Fire TV digital media player; in late 2014, they released the smaller Fire TV Stick. Lab126 also released the Fire Phone that was not commercially successful. [15] [5]
In 2015, Lab126 released the Amazon Echo, a voice command device. [16]
In 2016, it released the Echo Dot, which is a hockey puck sized version of the Echo; they also released the Amazon Tap, a smaller, portable version of the Echo. [17] [18]
In 2021, it announced Amazon Astro, a brand of domestic robots developed by Lab126. [19] [20]
A closed platform, walled garden, or closed ecosystem is a software system wherein the carrier or service provider has control over applications, content, and/or media, and restricts convenient access to non-approved applicants or content. This is in contrast to an open platform, wherein consumers generally have unrestricted access to applications and content.
E Ink is a brand of electronic paper (e-paper) display technology commercialized by the E Ink Corporation, which was co-founded in 1997 by MIT undergraduates JD Albert and Barrett Comiskey, MIT Media Lab professor Joseph Jacobson, Jerome Rubin and Russ Wilcox.
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An e-reader, also called an e-book reader or e-book device, is a mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and periodicals.
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