Amazon Lab126 (sometimes known as Lab126) is an American

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

and

computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the computer case, case, central processing unit (CPU), Random-access memory, random access memory (RAM), Computer monitor, monitor, Computer mouse, mouse, Computer keyboard, ...

company owned by

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

. It was founded in 2004 by Gregg Zehr, previously Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Palm, and is based in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the nort ...

. It is widely known for developing Amazon's Kindle line of e-readers and tablets.

Name

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 English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...

Products

*In 2007, after three years of research and development by Lab126, the

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. ...

e-reader was released. Newer models of the Kindle continue to be released, with the latest model called the Kindle Oasis in mid-2016. *In 2011, Lab126 released the Kindle Fire

tablet Tablet may refer to: Medicine * Tablet (pharmacy), a mixture of pharmacological substances pressed into a small cake or bar, colloquially called a "pill" Computing * Tablet computer, a mobile computer that is primarily operated by touching the s ...

and in 2012 released two new models of the Fire tablet called the Kindle Fire HD. In 2013, it released the Fire HDX, a high-end tablet. *In 2014, Lab126 released the Amazon Fire TV

digital media player A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...

and in late 2014 released the smaller

Fire TV Stick Amazon Fire TV (stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connect ...

. *In 2014, Lab126 released the Fire Phone that was not commercially successful. *In 2015, Lab126 released the Amazon Echo, a

voice command device A voice-user interface (VUI) makes spoken human interaction with computers possible, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer questions, and typically text to speech to play a reply. A voice command device is a device con ...

. *In 2016, it released the

Echo Dot Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is an American brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service ''Alexa'', which will respond when a user says "Alexa". Users m ...

, which is a hockey puck sized version of the Echo and the

Amazon Tap Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is an American brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service ''Alexa'', which will respond when a user says "Alexa". Users m ...

, a smaller, portable version of the Echo. *In 2021, it announced

Amazon Astro Amazon Astro, often shortened to Astro, is a home robot developed by Amazon.com, Inc. It was designed for home security monitoring, remote care of elderly relatives, and as a virtual assistant that can follow a person from room to room. Features ...

, a brand of domestic robots developed by Lab126.

References

External links

Lab 126 -- Public Website
{{amazon 2004 establishments in California Amazon (company) Companies based in Sunnyvale, California Computer companies established in 2004 Technology companies established in 2004 Electronics companies of the United States Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Research and development in the United States