Amazon.com is snapping at the heels of Apple and Google in the race to equip homes with smart devices, unveiling a slew of consumer gadgets, including an Alexa-powered digital-home hub, a smaller and cheaper Echo speaker and a new mini Echo with a screen, called Spot.

The gadgets are expected to help in popularising and expanding the Alexa voice-based digital assistant, which is integrated into the latest devices and allows customers to view content like movies and books from Amazon Prime.

Amazon – natch – is looking to give consumers the ability to buy items on its Web site from any of its devices.