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Amazon’s Oven
At the Amazon Hardware event last month, the company announced a smart microwave capable of heating food three types of ways and with programmability from Alexa. Immediately, I was brought back to 30 Rock’s Jack Donaghy discussing his invention of the Trivection Oven that had led to his promotion at the start of the series.
Last year, Amazon announced the AmazonBasics microwave with Alexa. It was a bit of a nonstarter. It was basically a regular microwave except it had a button that would cause the Alexa closest to the device to go into listening mode. You could then set it to popcorn or some other presets, or set a time.
Now, the new oven promises more. It will allow you to use your Echo Show or Alexa App to scan food and then it will walk you through the cooking instructions. It’s an interesting idea but I’m wondering about the value add.
It ships with an Echo Dot, so you don’t need to sacrifice one that you have to use the microwave. But, really, Amazon… the mics should be built in. It should also have its own camera for scanning food.
However, if Amazon is going to go into the non-basics appliance market, it should go all in. I mean June Oven all in:
Amazon might be missing an opportunity to leave behind potential competition in the kitchen and grocery space. What if you could go from ordering Whole Foods, to having someone put in your oven, to having the oven warm it up so that it’s ready for when you get home?
Amazon is an investor in June, after all. It has a habit becoming a competitor with its investments. In fact, maybe being an investment of Amazon is like being in a real smart oven.
