Published in News

Meet Amazon Dash, more unnecessary hardware

by on07 April 2014




Scan and buy at Amazon

It looks like Amazon is on fire with its rather good looking, US-only Amazon Fire TV set top box, pardon the pun. This was not enough and the company pulled another quite loud PR stunt, the loudest since that quad-copter delivery tease made last year.

Amazon has introduced a closed beta of Dash, an USB stick shaped device that can do some voice recognition and scan products so you can order them at Amazon. There is no other way of saying it - this product is created for lazy people who can’t be bothered and who want to scan things and get them delivered to their homes.

The basic principle is simple:

"Dash connects to your home Wi-Fi network and works directly with your AmazonFresh account. Say or scan items into your Dash, and then view the list on your desktop or mobile device to purchase and schedule delivery."

Amazon has 500,000 items that you can order via Dash and you do the check out from the smartphone, tablet or notebook or desktop Amazon fresh account. Amazon promises that the most orders arrive the next day, which is pretty impressive.
What is not impressive is the hardware. We ask a simple question - why would you want something like that? Granted, we cater to a tech savvy audience, but we are quite sure that even an average consumer could use a smartphone app that does the exact same thing.

The app could basically have the same functionality, rendering the Dash hardware obsolete even before it ships. You just don’t need that and if Amazon wanted to, they could have just make a barcode/QR code, voice supported Amazon Fresh application for your smartphone and offer the exact same functionality.

The Amazon Dash is a beta trial available by invitation only, but it will likely expand and be offered to Amazon customers rather soon. You can check out the video after the break.



Rate this item
(0 votes)

Media

Read more about: