AmazonThe equipment department has a new team responsible for inventing “breakthrough” consumer products, which were led by previous Microsoft Help create an executive in Xbox.

Based on job postings in the past month, Team Zero is distributed in Seattle, San Francisco and Sunnyvale, California, and focuses on hardware and software projects. The name is a nod to the mission of starting from conception to launching or “zero to one” to develop creative ideas for emerging products.

Amazon has a history of hardware lattice, which includes Kindle E-Reader, Echo Smart speakers and fire rods, as well as slippers like Fire Phone, Halo Fitness Tracker and Glow Kids Telectectrencing devices.

Many products come from LAB126, Amazon's hardware R&D unit, located in Silicon Valley.

According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked at Microsoft for 19 years, and most recently served as the technical leader for consumer products, a technical leader he served in 2010. He is a key architect at Xbox Game Console and a failed iPod rival Zune.

Allard joined Amazon in September, when the company confirmed that he would join the device and service team under Panos Panay, which left Microsoft to head for Amazon in 2023.

An Amazon spokesman confirmed Allard oversees Zero but declined to comment further on the organization's work.

The post releases few specific details about what Zero Yuan is building, although one of the list references “conceive, design and bring computer vision technology to the market for new smart home products.”

Another post by a senior client insight manager in San Francisco said the work requires “a methodology and execution of concept testing and early feedback from zero plan.”

“You will be part of a team that embraces design thinking, experiments quickly and learns to learn,” the description says. “If you’re excited about working in small, agile teams to create entirely new product categories and thrive in the ambiguity of breakthrough innovation, we want to talk to you.”

According to LinkedIn Proiles, a Zeroone employee, Amazon attracts employees from other business units whose experience includes its Alexa voice assistant, Luna Cloud Gaming Service and Halo Sleep Tracker. Amazon's head of a projection mapping startup called Lightform is helping lead the team.

While Amazon is expanding specific corners of its device group, the company is expanding other areas of its massive equipment and services department.

Earlier this month, Amazon abandoned 100 employees of the group. The layoffs include public documents and people familiar with the matter, who develop services for children and LAB126 staff members who requested no name due to confidentiality. More than 50 employees were fired at Amazon’s LAB126 facility, according to the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) document.

Amazon said the cuts affected a small percentage of a portion of equipment and service organizations that have thousands of employees.

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