This is in the same vein as the question "why would I want a web browser on my phone? Why wouldn't I just use the web browser on my desktop computer?"

As to why you'd want a device that is listening - and does something when its triggered - is that you can arbitrarily activate it with your voice. For example, if your hands are full, or dirty, because maybe you're cooking or changing the oil in your car, or cataloging the stuff you have stored in your garage.

It doesn't take too much imagination to see why Amazon would invest in creating such a product.

But will those use cases be frequent enough to make someone want this? Probably not. Don't be surprised when this turns out to be the next Fire Phone.

I'm sure a few people thought the same about smart phones.

No no it's not in the same vein.

I think it's about putting it out there and seeing how people behave around it (when it's on the desk, kitchen etc). The idea isn't novel, you had virtual assistants do such "tasks" 5-8 years ago (and Timothy Ferris would write a best seller about it), but Amazon's made a laudable effort to build a humanoid to test it further. You have to remember Jeff Bezos has kept Mechanical Turk going for a reason, I wouldn't be surprised if Echo and MTurk combine into something very powerful.

Or maybe I'm wrong and this is just so Amazon can feel special, relevant (next to Google and Apple) and keep its share prices high to motivate human resources so they can continue selling and shipping warehouse inventory.

These were my exact thoughts when the ipad was originally announced.

the question is still valid in both cases. i have a nexus 7 (1st gen) and it's mostly collecting dust.

I think this actually supports the point. People don't know what they want. People often find great use for things that don't seem useful at first, and vice-versa.