SEATTLE — Amazon released the first Echo smart speaker three years ago, not long after the company’s attempt at a smartphone proved to be a humiliating failure.

So far, the results for the Echo have been anything but humiliating. Now, having grown more confident that it understands the fickle market for consumer products, Amazon is making it clear that the Echo and other hardware powered by Alexa, the intelligent assistant behind the devices, present the company with one of its brightest opportunities.

On Wednesday, Amazon introduced an array of new Alexa devices that are smaller, less expensive and, in some cases, built for specific areas of the home, including an alarm clock, Echo Spot, that is designed to sit on night stands and desks.

Amazon prides itself on its almost pathological focus on what its customers want, rather than what its competitors are doing. But its new Alexa products are clearly a response, at least in part, to new smart speaker offerings from Google and Apple. Amazon is betting that it can defend its franchise by using an old trick — aggressive pricing — and by finding ways to embed Alexa’s hooks more deeply into customers’ lives.