Amazon starts testing new Alexa concept devices with pre-order goals

Amazon is testing out a new sales method called ‘Build it’ with three experimental gadgets.

While these new Echo gadgets are cool in their own right, the most interesting part is how the company is selling them. Right now, you can only pre-order the devices through the Build it program, and Amazon won’t manufacture them unless enough people actually show interest.

If you remember Amazon’s Day 1 Edition products like its smart glasses and ring, this trio of devices are part of the same collection of concept devices.

The new Build it strategy has a lot in common with crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, but instead of supporting a startup, you’re just showing Amazon that this particular product might be worth producing since people are into it. This is a fun way for the e-commerce giant to try out some wilder Alexa-enabled devices. So far, this new order method and the products that go along with it, aren’t available in Canada, but MobileSyrup has reached out to Amazon for more information.

To start, Amazon is taking pre-order on an Alexa-enabled Cuckoo Clock, a smart nutrition scale and a smart stick note printer.

I think the coolest device is the sticky note printer. It works in conjunction with an Alexa smart speaker by printing off notes for you. That means if you ask the smart speaker to print a note, it will print whatever you say. There are even pictures of it printing out tiny sudoku puzzles and to-do lists on the Amazon product page.

The Cuckoo Clock is basically a cuckoo clock with Alexa built-in, allowing you to ask it about the weather, the news, to set timers and more.

The Smart Nutrition Scale allows you to weigh food and then ask an Alexa device for nutritional information about it. This means if you’re weighing some strawberries, you can request, “Alexa, ask Smart Scale how much sugar is in these strawberries.”

You can learn more about the Build it program on Amazon’s website. 

Source: Amazon