Why did Amazon get into the hardware space?

I will answer this as a product strategy question:

Step 1: Clarify qn- 

1) Amazon has been in the hardware business for some time e.g. Fire Tablet, FireTV, Alexa etc. Are you referring to a new area that Amazon is yet to enter?

2) Are you referring to any area that Amazon has not been successful and you want to evaluate areas of failure?

3) Are we looking at a specific region or geography?

4) Are you referring to any segment of Amazon e.g. Amazon basic or Amazon autonomous section or any other section?

Step 2: Describe company

Amazon is the one of the largest online retailer in the world. With a high market capitalization of about 1 Trillion. Amazon boasts of presence in almost every segment of retail business e.g. clothes, electronics, general merchandise, stationary, food supplying to both retail and business customers. 

While Amazon is very strong in general retailing its proprietary goods brands e.g. Amazon basic are usually considered as a cheaper alternative to market leaders e.g. Staples vs Amazon basics in stationary or Amazon Airconditioners vs Black + Decker/Samsung. 

Amazon has an inherent advantage of  being able to throttle supply of its competitors though it might lead to legal issue as well as customers shifting to other channels like Walmart and BestBuy.

Step 3: Strategic objectives

1)  Remain competitive in all price segments e.g. Premium, Mid-Grade and low. 

2) Retain and increase user base of all customer types (high spending as well as price sensitive)

3) Fend off competition from likes of Walmart and DealstoBuy

Step 4: Strategic choices

1) Create home brands for hardware to cater to low end of the user market where regular national brands do want to compete. This will attract a user  base which otherwise would have otherwise gone to the clearance section of big box stores

2) Become a loss leader to provide the means to a user segment that would otherwise have not thought about buying a more expensive offering e.g. sell laptops so that they will also buy software or accessories with it.

3) Create a hardware brand for regions currently not serviced by major brand e.g. a region such as Sudan or Rwanda

4) Home brand to consolidate and sell unsold equipment e.g. all unsold laptops or lawnmovers are sold with a amazon basic brand to that they major brand does not loss brand value

5) Leverage existing supply chain to acquire parts from the OEMs and thereby create a comparable product at a lower price

Step 5: Evaluate strategic objectives

based on 4 parameters viz. Revenue,  Engagement, Implementation effort, Competition, Growth

Step 7: Recommendations

From this analysis, it seems that the strategy of Amazon to enter hardware business was to 'Leverage existing supply chain to acquire parts from the OEMs and thereby create a comparable product at a lower price'