Amazon Lab126 (sometimes known as Lab126) is an American

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

and

computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the central processing unit (CPU), random-access memory (RAM), motherboard, computer data storage, graphics card, sound card, and computer case. It includes external devices ...

company owned by

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...

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

Palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

, and is based in

Sunnyvale, California Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States. Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real (California), El Camino Real and U.S. Route 101 in California, Highway 1 ...

. It is widely known for developing Amazon's Kindle line of

e-reader An e-reader, also called an e reader or e device, is a Mobile computing, mobile electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital e-books and Periodical literature, periodicals. Any device that can display text on ...

s 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 that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

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, Audible audiobooks, and other digital media via wireless networking ...

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 The Amazon Fire, formerly called the Kindle Fire, is a line of tablet computers developed by Amazon. Built with Quanta Computer, the Kindle Fire was first released in November 2011, featuring a color 7-inch multi-touch display with IPS tech ...

tablet; in 2012, they released two new models of the Fire tablet called the Kindle Fire HD. In 2013, it released the

Fire HDX The Amazon Fire HDX, formerly named Kindle Fire HDX, is a high-end model in the Amazon Fire line of tablet computers. It was announced on September 25, 2013, and was available in two models, 7 inch and 8.9 inch. The 7 inch WiFi mod ...

, a high-end tablet. In 2014, Lab126 released the

Amazon Fire TV Amazon Fire TV (formerly stylized as amazon fireTV) is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon since November 2014. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed v ...

digital media player A digital media player (also 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 integrated into a h ...

; in late 2014, they released the smaller Fire TV Stick. Lab126 also released the Fire Phone that was not commercially successful. In 2015, Lab126 released the

Amazon Echo Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon (company), Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled Virtual assistant, intelligent personal assistant service. ''Amazon Alexa, Alexa'', which resp ...

, a

voice command device A voice-user interface (VUI) enables spoken human interaction with computers, 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 controlle ...

. 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. In 2021, Lab126 announced Amazon Astro, a brand of domestic robots developed in house.

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