Amazon’s Echo Wall Clock is officially back on sale in the United States. The sales for the Wall Clock was paused to sort out bluetooth connectivity issues. Amazon restarted the sales for the Wall Clock after a little less than a month of time and is being sold for $30. Amazon was able to resolve the issue by a new software update and should improve its performance and connectivity. The software update was automatically installed to all Wall Clocks.
The clock is currently ran off of batteries and it has no microphone or speaker of its own. The clock isn’t an Echo device but it is an accessory that uses bluetooth to pair with an existing Echo speaker; which the clock requires an Echo device in order to maximize its potential. A cool aspect of the clock is that you can tell the Echo device to set a timer and there will be a visual countdown with LED lights around the edge of the clock. It’s interesting to see Amazon supplement it’s Echo device with hardware that makes daily hardware around the house more technological advance.
Source: https://www.cnet.com/news/alexas-echo-wall-clock-is-up-for-sale-again-after-connectivity-issues/
This seems like a silly product to me. First, who uses analog clocks to tell time anymore, and second to get the full functionality out of it the user needs to also have an existing echo device. There are already 300 devices in my house that can tell me the time and set a timer for me without having to talk to speak it into a completely separate device. I think Amazon is trying to leverage its ecosystem and broaden their offerings of smart home devices, but I believe there are many more practical places to implement technology into the home. This seems like a rushed product to keep up news coverage over current buzz words like smart home tech. As more and more smart home devices come onto the market, I think this will be overshadowed by other offerings with more functionality and practicality.