Amazon is adding smart devices to defrost your peas
SEATTLE — If you are one of the millions of people without a smart speaker in your home, Amazon wants to talk to you.
On Thursday, the company announced not one, not six, but more than a dozen devices for its Alexa voice assistant — all meant to solve problems in your life that you may not have even known you had. There is even a microwave.
“If you have ever tried to defrost peas, it’s a number of clicks,” said Dave Limp, Amazon’s senior vice president for devices and services.
Limp said the $59.99 microwave, made by AmazonBasics, the company’s house brand, was a way for Amazon to try out the smart home tools it is building out. The company wants the devices to be easier to set up out of the box and for other companies that make kitchen appliances to tap into the Alexa platform.
“When we imagine a future with thousands of devices like this, this is going to become essential,” Limp said.
The microwave was perhaps the cheekiest in a blizzard of announcements at the event inside Amazon’s headquarters. Limp also introduced a new Echo Auto that plugs into cars; Fire TV Recast, a DVR recording device that lets users record live TV and watch on a variety of devices; and an analog wall clock with a voice-controlled timer.
Another suite of devices announced Thursday are aimed to appeal to audiophiles. Echo devices can now be used for individual left and right channels, meaning a pair can create stereo sound. The new Echo Input is the first Echo device without a speaker, so users can connect their speakers to the brain of the Alexa.
Amazon now has some stiff competition in the voice-controlled device market — a market it practically created. A device from Google, the Home Mini, is now the top-selling smart speaker worldwide. Apple has also introduced its own high-priced voice-controlled speaker, focused on pristine audio quality.
The announcements Thursday show Amazon trying to flood the field, not just with its own devices but with products intended to model a way for outside manufacturers to build off Alexa’s interface.