• Cnet, Tuesday, December 1, 2015 1:56 PM

Amazon isn't just creating software and services. It's also building items that connect to the Internet. For example, there's the Amazon Echo, a personal assistant in the form of a giant cylindrical speaker, and the so-called Dash buttons, which make it easy to reorder a product with a single click of the tiny devices. Expect the company to keep inventing new household devices, especially those that make ordering from its online storefront even easier. Last month, the company's Amazon Web Services division unveiled AWS IoT, a service that has the potential to link cars, medical devices, household appliances and other objects to its software and servers. The announcement added Amazon to a heated race involving tech giants such as Google, Apple and Samsung, all of whom see this technology as the next stage in the industry's growth. The Internet of Things market is expected to be huge, connecting millions of devices and generating spending of $1.7 trillion by 2020, according to researcher IDC.

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