Amazon Echo Wall Clock Now Available for Purchase
Amazon announced a number of new products during its September new product launch event. One of those was the Amazon Echo Wall Clock which became available for purchase today in the U.S. and will ship before Christmas if you act soon. The Echo Wall Clock is priced at $29.99 and currently shows ship dates of Thursday, December 20th or Friday the 21st. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the company intends to sell the device in the U.K. and Germany, but it is not yet available in those markets.
Why do you need a wall clock compatible with Alexa? The use cases revolve exclusively around timers. You actually set the timer using your Alexa-powered smart speaker and then the lights around the rim of the clock light up to show you how much time is left. It even enables you to see the status of multiple timers. This visual indicator may provide utility to certain users. You can simply look at the clock to see a status indicator instead of having to ask that question of Alexa. The Echo Wall Clock is almost three times more expensive than a comparable-looking clock that is currently listed as Amazon’s Choice. The difference is the Alexa integration and the rim of lights for displaying timer status.
Requires An Alexa-Powered Device
You should think of the Echo Wall Clock as an Alexa-compatible device similar to a smart home product. It does not have an internal microphone and therefore requires the user to have an Alexa-enabled smart speaker to interact with it. In theory, you could connect to it using the Alexa app on your smartphone, but that is not the intended user modality. The Echo Wall Clock and Alexa Microwave were among the more surprising product announcements among a dozen new offerings presented by Amazon in September. It is clear from some side comments and the demeanor during the presentation that Amazon is willing to try out different devices options even if they may have a low chance of success. A product launch provides the opportunity to see if consumers will adopt it. At least one Reddit user was excited about the product availability today. We will soon know if there is widespread interest.
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