By Laura Stevens
SEATTLE -- In a bid to control the smart home of the future,
Amazon.com Inc. is offering makers of electronics a small chip that
would let people use their voice to command everything from
microwaves and coffee machines to room fans and guitar
amplifiers.
The online retail giant is hoping big manufacturers will sign up
to incorporate the Alexa-enabled chips -- which cost a few dollars
each -- in lower-end, everyday household devices.
The plan, if successful, could give Amazon an advantage over
other tech companies such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Apple Inc. and
Microsoft Corp., which are all racing to use voice assistants to
control everyday devices to promote their services, as well as
glean consumer data.
The announcement came Thursday at a press event in Amazon's new
Spheres building, where executives revealed a flurry of new Echo
speaker devices and other electronics powered by its Alexa voice
assistant. The products, which included a $50 Echo for cars and a
new home security system, shows Amazon's intention to put Alexa at
the center of people's lives. It also unveiled a raft of
improvements to Alexa, highlighting capabilities that allow it to
whisper and hold conversations.
Amazon's effort to turn Alexa into the home's central operating
system is full of challenges. For decades, the vision of a
Jetsons-like connected smart home to remotely open the garage, turn
on the porch lights and fire up the oven has been slowed by gadgets
that are too expensive, too difficult to configure and are
incompatible with other products.
Amazon is looking to unite a scattered industry where many
manufacturers have chosen to develop their own connected devices
and rent space in the cloud to power them. The company must prove
it can push Alexa into the mainstream beyond its Echo speaker
devices, and lure more than just the early adopters who outfit
their homes with smart devices.
"The response we're seeing from customers is indicating that
there are now many cases where voice is a simpler interface," such
as using a light switch, said Daniel Rausch, vice president of
smart home, in an interview. It is "as basic as coming home with
your hands full of groceries and being able to turn on the lights.
No one likes to walk through a dark house."
To demonstrate its technology, Amazon has incorporated a circuit
board and a button to access Alexa into its private-label
microwave. Amazon said customers could either press the button or
use an Echo speaker -- which connects via Wi-Fi -- to command the
microwave to do things like defrost a half-pound of chicken, or set
it up to automatically to reorder a favorite type of popcorn on
Amazon.
"What this microwave does is keep track of how many times you
cook popcorn and make sure you never run out," Mr. Rausch said.
Amazon's ambitions in the smart home follow efforts by other
companies to entice manufacturers to connect with their own voice
assistants through software, rather than create all the hardware
themselves.
Apple a few years ago launched the HomeKit for manufacturers to
connect their home accessories to the Siri voice assistant, but it
has struggled to win widespread adoption in part due to high
security, privacy and programming standards. Google Home has made
more progress, in part due to the company's purchase of
home-automation product maker Nest Labs in 2014.
With its new smart-home hardware add-on, called the "Alexa
Connect Kit," Amazon is initially allowing a string of partners to
test it, including consumer product makers Hamilton Beach Brands
Holding Co. and Procter & Gamble Co. Companies can start
applying immediately to participate in the preview program, and it
will expand more broadly at a later, undisclosed date.
Mr. Rausch said Amazon designed the modules to be easily
incorporated into any device. The green printed circuit boards --
roughly as big as a quarter -- contain a chip and a WiFi antenna,
and will be available for purchase from a third-party manufacturer.
Mr. Rausch said they work with any device that has a
microcontroller, essentially a very basic computer that helps power
certain functions like timers and clocks, including those in some
blenders, coffee makers and fans. The manufacturers would need to
write some simple code to program the chips for each device, he
said.
Amazon says it has made the setup for Echo users automatic,
eliminating the sometimes cumbersome steps to connect things like
smart lightbulbs with apps or networks before they work. Once the
device is plugged in, it can search for and connect to WiFi via
other Amazon-connected devices in the home.
Many buyers of smart-home devices are like Nanette Hernandez, a
college student living in Plainfield, Ill., who bought a
home-automation system through AT&T Inc. a few years ago. She
uses the security cameras, but hasn't managed to figure out how to
program the thermostat or lights. A smart garage-door opener is
still in the box.
"It would probably be amazing, but I just don't know how to do
it," Ms. Hernandez said.
Tyler McPheeters, a Chicago-based technology consultant, said he
has installed lights, shades and other smart devices throughout his
home and looks for products that are compatible with Apple's
HomeKit or Echo devices. "We try to find things that work with
stuff we already have so it's not one app for one thing, and one
app for another thing," the 37-year-old said.
Whichever tech giant is able to weave its way into the most
devices will have a leg up on the competition, said Carolina
Milanesi, a consumer tech analyst with Creative Strategies. "The
more entry points, the more you're getting that consumer and that
home deeper in your ecosystem," she said.
Write to Laura Stevens at laura.stevens@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 20, 2018 15:51 ET (19:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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