Amazon’s consumer robot is at a crossroads as the giant rethinks its Alexa strategy.
You cannot buy the Amazon Astro consumer robot in the UK, even if it is part of that technology giant’s vision for your home and has been on sale for a year. But Astro is a rapidly emerging beta product in the US and merits investigation.
Sales are by invitation only and, should you get one, it’s $1,000 (£814) a cutie, rising eventually to $1,499. And it can be cute. Astro can smile, dance and now – thanks to a new hardware peripheral – chuck treats to your cat or dog while you’re out.
Astro has already become Amazon’s totem for consumer robotics. That said, despite the September 2022 upgrade, it is also a product at a crossroads.
The upgrade sought to take Astro to a new level with the promise of a software development kit (SDK). It showcased doggy, moggy and other internal fruits of the emerging SDK. It punted the idea of Astro for business, especially SMEs. More of that later.
However, just weeks after Amazon’s latest attempt to boost Astro, bad news. Astro leverages technology from the Alexa home assistant AI programme. Evolving a static Echo to a mobile Astro does make sense.
However, in November we learned that the Worldwide Digital division of which Astro is today a small part lost $3bn in the first quarter of 2022 alone and was to carry a large part of 10,000 planned job cuts. Alexa, Astro’s mum, was mostly responsible. It had not generated enough extra income. And no, I don’t turn to mine to create a shopping list or buy a new USB charger cable. I just want some news or music. It stubbornly remains a smart speaker – albeit a very good one – but not a shop window.
Amazon also doesn’t get enough credit for building consumer products based on reuse that do what most people want of them at lower prices than rivals – its upsell priorities notwithstanding. As the company is obviously rethinking its domestic strategy, you do note that the reuse links between Astro and some of the company’s other hardware products are strong.
