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We are in the trenches of a pivotal moment in history. In the past decade, the tech world has made stratospheric progress, and very soon, the products of our imagination will be things that the future generation won’t be able to live without. From autonomous cars to drone technology, and virtual reality, this is an exciting time to be alive.

Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) Echo might be small, but it has set the foundation for a game-changing decade. This is a device which gives users the ability to check the news, order products and literally speak to the web. Voice recognition isn’t new; however, the way Amazon has implemented it makes it a huge long-term growth driver for the company. I will get into why it is so later in this post.

In fact, the consumer demand for “the robot in a tube” has been so high that since release, it has frequently been out of stock. Amazon recently released the Echo dot which is a smaller, more affordable device for placement around the home. Despite the fact that it is exclusive to current Echo owners, it too has been sold out.

When we take a look at Amazon’s huge, diversified business, this couldn’t have come at a better time. Timely products and services tend to be a recurring theme with Amazon. Their AWS cloud offering is currently dominating the market and had a huge part to play in Amazon posting significant profits during their latest earnings call. Moreover, it is so powerful and efficient that video streaming competitor, Netflix, hosts its videos with them.

And this is the infrastructure the Echo is able to tap into…

The Echo might be performing fairly simple consumer-focused commands now, but the possibilities for the enterprise market are endless.

Amazon made the smart move of giving developers access to the Echo from launch. As many companies have realized too late, (looking at you Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)) developers can make or break a products success. The collaboration and creativity inherent within the developer community drives profits when harnessed. For instance, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) still has a significant lead in the apps market due to making their platform conducive to developers.

The future will be all about big data as the lines between humanity, robotics and the Internet of Things (IOT) become increasingly blurred. Therefore, demand for platforms which make sense of all this big data will skyrocket. In fact, one leading analyst estimates that within 4 years, the Internet of Things could be a trillion dollar industry.

In the short term, the Echo provides Amazon with unprecedented data about their customers. Although useful, it is Amazon’s trojan horse into the home. It will be able to record family habits which were previously out of bounds. As a result, they can fine tune their product recommendations and use the data gathered by the Echo to launch more commercially-viable products and services.

The Echo aside, Amazon has been conducting business with ruthless efficiency over the last few years. Arguably, their aim is to set up multiple monopolies. For instance, the Kindle dominates the eBook market. Plus, the upcoming drone delivery will give Amazon huge leverage over brick-and-mortar establishments. Every launch from their streaming offering to their food delivery program quickly eats up market share.

It is clear that Amazon’s management have developed a process that works. Plus, they have an uncanny ability to be able to gain a ground on competitors by releasing innovative products and services.

A critique bearish analysts continually bash Amazon with is their continual reinvestments, and consequently poor showing on the profits front. However, over the past two quarters, Amazon has shown significant profit. Admittedly, Amazon still doesn’t still give out dividends; however, that should change soon.

In conclusion, Amazon continues to think a step ahead of competitors. Not only does Jeff Bezos and team diversify their interests but they are at the pinnacle of most industries they find themselves in. Amazon’s economies of scale are also unprecedented. Moving forward, these factors and more will help them to build a formidable company. Buy Amazon stock for its potential. Expect year-on-year growth over the next 3 years.