Who knew Amazon would become such a hardware company? Not I. Amazon’s latest piece of, hardware is in the form of a personal assistant that looks like a bluetooth speaker. It is like a dedicated version of Apple’s “Siri” or Google’s “Now”. , Amazon Echo can do tasks and answer questions like these –
- Play music by, the Eagles
- Add toilet paper to my shopping list
- What is the weather tomorrow?
- Set an alarm for 9am
- How many ounces in a gallon?
- Wikipedia: Rodney Dangerfield
- Play my “happy music” playlist
- Add “mow the lawn” to my to-do list
- How do you spell “octopus”?
- When is Christmas?
You get the idea. So why would Amazon make such a gadget? The main reason is that Amazon wants you to shop with them without even realizing it. The shopping integration is a bit light today but rest assured it will grow. In Amazon’s perfect world they want to be ubiquitous. You want to buy something… just shout it out.
This is no different than Google monetizing things with advertising… hey these guys have to make money somehow. That doesn’t make me want the Amazon Echo any less. I think it is a pretty cool gadget. Currently the Amazon Echo is sold by “invite only” and is $199 ($99 for prime members).
Watch the Amazon Echo video after the break.