The rolling miniature with a screen as a face is said to cost $ 1,500.
(Photo: dpa)
San Francisco For some time now, Amazon’s hardware events have been more surprising than those of the former “One More Thing” company Apple. The world’s largest online retailer often presents strange, futuristic devices, but their market launch is often years in the future. Amazon remains true to this tradition.
This time the final surprise at the event was the autonomous home robot Astro. The rolling miniature with a screen as a face is said to cost $ 1,500. The first buyers who make it onto a waiting list should receive it at the end of the year for 1000 euros.
However, Amazon Astro counts as a “Day One” product that could take longer to get to market. “Hot from the laboratory”, as Philipp Berger, Germany boss for Alexa, calls it. A start in Germany also seems to be far in the future.
With its camera and display, the robot, which is similar to Wall-E’s little brother from the Pixar film of the same name, has so far been a kind of rolling echo show that enables mobile video calls, for example. Instead of talking a lot about the robot’s functions, Amazon brought in several robotics who praised Astro’s ability to avoid obstacles.
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However, Astro does not seem really useful yet, rather it seems to be the entry into a new category. Charlie Tritschler, Amazon’s Vice President for Devices, rhetorically asked if “Anyone think we won’t have home robots in five to ten years?” At least nobody at Amazon.
In addition, Amazon is further developing its well-known portfolio of smart speakers, door cameras and bells. The biggest innovation is an Echo Show with a 15.6-inch screen that is attached to the wall and looks more like a television than a speaker with a display.
Miriam Daniel, Vice President for Echo and Alexa, called the device a “kitchen television”, which can primarily serve as a smart family calendar and control center for smart home devices.
Amazon has developed a new AI chip called AZ2 for the device, which is intended to improve the processing of data on the device and thus protect the privacy of users. Unlike Astro, the Echo Show 15 will soon also be available in Germany and cost 250 euros.
What does this mean for Amazon?
Hardware is not Amazon’s main business. The prices for the devices are just as cost-covering. Devices such as the wireless video doorbell Blink for 60 euros or the Echo Show 15 should establish Amazon as the center of the networked home.
To this end, the Seattle-based technology company is advancing quite vigorously into new product categories. The fact that the portfolio is becoming rather confusing and that some of the products that were once presented never come onto the market seem to be priced in. Where Apple struggles to avoid public misses, Amazon is firing up all the pipes.
In this way, Amazon has established its ring surveillance cameras and alarm systems well, at least in the USA – the flying ring home drone is to be delivered at least to buyers on an invitation list one year after its launch.
What is missing?
The clear customer benefit. The dream of an Android assistant for the home is ancient, but apart from vacuum cleaner and mopping robots, none has ever caught on. Low intelligence or inability to avoid obstacles was at most one factor. “Three things are important when it comes to robots for private individuals,” said robotics entrepreneur Paolo Pirjanian to Handelsblatt last year. “The price, the price and the price.”
At barely $ 1,500, Astro is cheap enough to wow more than a few wealthy tech enthusiasts. This could only change when the robot is able to relieve its owners of household chores.
To a lesser extent, this even applies to Amazon’s Echo devices. Most users use them primarily as linguistically gifted jukeboxes. The function as a family calendar and as a television for cutting vegetables is at least a step forward.
More: Why robots are still not part of everyday life