Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Amazon Gobbles Up Eero to Round Out Its Smart Home Plan | Wired

In case you're inclined to provide Amazon with more personal activity data... For more details, see Amazon to Acquire eero to Help Customers Better Connect Smart Home Devices | Amazon
"But for Amazon, the Eero buy clearly signals how serious the company is about rounding out its smart home hardware offerings—and squeezing as many Amazon-owned access points as it can into a person’s home. In just five years, Amazon has both launched its own array of smart home devices, starting with the first Echo speaker in 2014. The company's roster of smart home devices now includes multiple speakers, TV streaming boxes and sticks, connected television sets, countertop displays, a wall clock, and a DVR, not to mention oddball gadgets like a scanning wand that aids your grocery shopping and a camera that judges your outfits.

Along the way, Amazon also strategically acquired smaller smart home companies, or IoT-adjacent companies. Its 2015 buy of Israeli chipmaker Annapurna Labs seemed to affirm the e-commerce company’s commitment to making its own chips that could power “home gateways, Wi-Fi routers, and network-attached storage devices.” Then, in late 2017, Amazon acquired Blink, a Massachusetts-based startup that made battery-powered smart cameras and smart doorbells. And last year, it spent $1.1 billion on Ring, which also makes smart home products and which Amazon had invested in previously through its Alexa Fund."
Amazon Gobbles Up Eero to Round Out Its Smart Home Plan | Wired

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