Ecommerce giant Amazon has unveiled a wide range of new hardware options, taking what some commentators feel is a “shotgun” approach to product targeting: throw out everything you can think of, and see what sticks. Given the fast-increasing penetration of voice-assisted digital assistants into the home, and the corresponding requirements for smart tech and better internet connections, that’s not a bad strategy – particularly when you consider that Amazon has the deep pockets required to make it work. Ultimately, these gadgets are designed to do one thing: push Alexa further into people’s lives and get them knitted in to the Amazon eco-system as a result.
Amazon’s share price has risen by 20% so far this year
Source: Yahoo Finance
Amongst the many devices announced are Echo Buds, Amazon’s AirPods competitor and a novel way to get Alexa outside the house, a new Wi-Fi router and new wireless technology called Sidewalk (which should let users control their home devices at a longer range than Wi-Fi or Bluetooth currently allows), and a plethora of updated Echo devices.
Amazon’s senior vice president Dave Limp was explicit that Amazon doesn’t see hardware as a money maker – rather, it sees these devices as gateways into the Amazon ecosystem. Understandably, then, Amazon wants to build as many as possible and situate them all round the world.
He told CNBC: “We try to price our products effectively at about what they cost to make. We think that’s very aligned with customers, we don’t make a lot of money on them, we don’t lose a lot of money on them, but what we try to do is then make money both for us and developers when customers use the products, not just when they buy them.”
Disclosure
Dominion holds Amazon in its Global Trends Ecommerce Fund.
Author: Theo Leworthy
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