Amazon, Developer Team Up In Bid For Smart Home Dollars
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LOS ANGELES (CBSMiami) - The world's largest online retailer is partnering with one of the nation's biggest developers to market its smart home technology.
Amazon teamed up with homebuilder Lennar to install its Alexa technology in homes. They've created "Amazon Experience Centers" where potential customers can test how simple voice commands can turn on the TV, adjust the lights, play music on wireless speakers, and do a bit of cleaning.
"It's an experience. It's more than just a feature," said Jeremy Parness with Lennar. "It's more than that, it's anticipating the way we're going to live every day and it will function very intuitively."
The new partnership could give Amazon a boost in the booming smart home market which is expected to see global sales reach more than 107 billion dollars by 2023.
Google and Apple are also competing for those smart home dollars along with hundreds of products from smart refrigerators to smart bulbs.
"It's only going to get bigger. I think it's going to be pretty unusual in five years to enter a home that doesn't have a digital assistant like Amazon Echo, like Google Home plugged in somewhere in the house," said Lindsey Turrentine, Editor in Chief of cnet.com.
The Amazon Experience Centers are open to tour in 15 major cities across the country with more homes opening soon. Cities which currently have Amazon Experience Centers include Miami, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
