Although best known as an online retailer, Amazon has also become a giant in the tech world with a vast portfolio of devices, from e-readers to video doorbells and everything in between.
The Amazon Echo range, the family of smart speakers that houses the Alexa voice assistant, has made its way into many homes, having effectively created a new device market and kicked off the home category. connected. In 2021, Amazon shipped 21.9 million smart speakers in the United States alone, according to a report by research firm Omnia.
And the technological giant’s ambitions in terms of products are constantly growing, as evidenced by its event on September 28th.
One brand, a variety of products
Amazon’s strategy is to create products for every aspect of your life, to make everyday tasks easier. By creating products to fill even more niches, it cements consumers in its product ecosystem.
“Our research shows that most consumers prefer buying smart home devices from a single vendor or brand, rather than mixing products from multiple brands,” research director Adam Wright told ZDNet. at the analyst IDC.
“Part of this is due to brand loyalty and trust: consumers who have a positive experience with a brand that provides home automation devices and services are more likely to trust it and seek out additional products of the same brand, rather than taking the risk of using another unfamiliar brand. »
Designing an integrated smart home
When launched, Alexa was unable to provide a response beyond weather and song playback. However, Amazon has embraced ambient and continuous computing, and the brand continues to expand the scope of what its voice assistants do to build an integrated connected home.
“We want to make customers’ lives more convenient and provide them with peace of mind through ambient experiences,” an Amazon spokesperson told ZDNet. “For us, that means delivering experiences that are easy to use, useful, and always available. It also means building technology that understands and adapts to you, is there when you need it, and fades away when you don’t. »
Amazon has developed a wide range of devices that you can control through Alexa to clean your house, turn on lights, or order items delivered to your door. There are connected light bulbs, doorbell cameras, alarm systems, smart plugs, thermometers, air purifiers, photo frames, pet feeders, vacuum cleaners, toaster ovens and reading lights. that all connect to its digital infrastructure.
“For Amazon, it’s exciting to get its products into more homes, which it can do by offering a wide range of device types at different price points,” said David Watkins, vice president of media and connected home at Strategy Analytics.
“The more consumers who regularly use her products, the more data she can collect that will help her grow her e-commerce business through increased personalization, supply chain efficiency and speed,” adds he.
Associated services
The devices that make up Amazon’s selection aren’t limited to connected home devices — Amazon is also expanding into the automotive space and wearables market.
The tech giant has acquired other brands that can enrich its seamless product environment. Over the past five years, Amazon has acquired security camera company Blink Home, for an undisclosed amount, and doorbell company along with Ring, for about $1 billion. Amazon is also set to buy robot vacuum cleaner company iRobot in a deal valued at around $1.7 billion.
In addition to these products, third-party manufacturers and developers have created a range of hundreds of thousands of non-Amazon devices that also connect to Alexa. Last year, Amazon reported that more than 900,000 registered Alexa developers had created 130,000 Alexa skills and hundreds of Alexa-integrated products in categories including PCs, wearables, smart home devices and cars. About 140,000 smart home products are now compatible with Alexa.
Of course, one of the main motivations behind Amazon’s product development is to get people to subscribe to its paid services using its devices. Besides its most common service, Amazon Prime, Amazon offers hundreds of services it takes advantage of, such as Audible, Prime Gaming, Prime Video, Amazon Music, and Amazon Fresh.
“In the connected home market, devices are just vehicles for service delivery, and Amazon seems happy to forgo some of the revenue on the devices themselves in favor of increasing service revenue” , explains Adam Wright.
A step ahead of voice assistants
The potential is vast, adds Adam Wright, “ranging from a subscription to Amazon Music through a smart speaker to a subscription to Echo Guard services, also through smart speakers and other devices with a microphone, to home monitoring and security services through Ring devices and much more.”
Other big tech companies like Google and Samsung have entered the connected home market with similar strategies. Yet, due to the vastness of its range of devices, and the strength of its e-commerce brand and other services, Amazon remains well ahead.
“When the connected home market started a few years ago, most brands focused on a single device or category. But most vendors quickly realized that they needed to leverage their existing technologies or create or acquire new ones to stay competitive,” says Adam Wright.
Google has developed a series of devices under the Google Nest brands, including speakers, displays, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, security cameras and doorbells. But compared to the number of devices Amazon has, Google is only making a small appearance in the connected home market.
In addition to dominating the connected home market, Amazon is also at the forefront of voice assistant technology, with no assistant as popular as Alexa.
“Amazon is also well positioned to be the default provider of voice commerce solutions, having made Alexa the primary voice assistant in the home,” says David Watkins. “Voice commerce is still in its infancy, but Amazon is betting big on it becoming a major commerce platform in the future. »
An incomplete portfolio
What will Amazon do from now on? One can imagine the company refining its current technology and developing new ways to improve the overall user experience in the connected home.
For example, Amazon can work to build user trust by developing better security and privacy protocols. We can also expect to see upgrades to Alexa Hunches and Alexa Routines, along with other measures to improve Alexa’s accuracy in performing and predicting tasks.
“I think they’re going to continue to redouble their efforts to innovate around experiences that are more personalized, contextualized, automated, and proactive, and that requires generating, collecting, and analyzing data — indeed, devices connected home devices, by their very nature, must generate and analyze data to operate,” explains Adam Wright. “That’s what gets lost in most conversations about privacy in the connected home. »
There is, however, a big void in Amazon’s portfolio – a void that is going to be difficult to fill. If that’s too complicated for voice prompts, then you need a smartphone to control your smart home. Amazon tried to launch a smartphone in 2015, its “3D” Fire Phone. But despite the large sums Amazon spent on the project, the phone didn’t generate much interest and was quickly abandoned.
“Amazon does not have a presence in the smartphone market and therefore needs to develop multiple hardware solutions in order to compete for consumers’ attention, whether at home (or) especially when on the go,” explains David Watkins. “Smartphones are the center of the universe for most people today, and Amazon’s status outside of the home environment will always be weakened as long as smartphones stay in the lead. »
Source: ZDNet.com