Amazon reportedly worked on an Alexa wearable for kids
Amazon reportedly worked on an Alexa wearable for kids
The company has experimented with an Alexa-enabled wearable for children, according to Bloomberg, as a new way of ingratiating itself into your life and the lives of your loved ones. According to documents obtained by Bloomberg, the device was considered for inclusion in Amazon's 2020 product roadmap, and it would have added to the company's growing lineup of technology products geared toward children.
The $99 wearable, codenamed "Seeker," would reportedly include GPS, voice activation (presumably for some kind of Alexa functionality), and would be aimed at children between the ages of four and twelve years old. The finer details of the physical design of the device appeared to be still up in the air at the time of publication. According to Bloomberg, the wearable could have been in the form of a clip, keychain, or wristband. With Amazon Kids Plus (formerly Amazon FreeTime Unlimited), the goal appeared to be to provide exclusive content to children while also allowing parents to track and communicate with their children. Amazon is also said to have collaborated with Disney on a wearable device known as the "Magic Band."
Amazon Initial Attempt
This wearable would not have been Amazon's first foray into the world of children's technology. Since 2018, Amazon has been attempting to bring Alexa into children's playrooms and bedrooms through the Echo Dot Kids Edition. Despite the fact that Amazon has added some interesting functionality to its child-friendly speakers and tablets — such as the ability to assist children in learning to read — the company has also been criticized in the past for how Alexa may allegedly violate children's privacy by recording and storing their voice recordings.
The fact that Amazon is attempting to enter this market is understandable, despite concerns about children's privacy and the general lack of specifics about the wearable technology. Other companies have also attempted to track children's physical activity, whether it's with Fitbit's Ace 3 for tracking children's physical activity or with Apple's Apple Watch SE, which is just a less expensive smartwatch but was marketed with an emphasis on the Apple Family Setup feature.
There are a variety of reasons to sell gadgets to children (one of which is to provide them with another source of valuable data), but the most common appears to be that parents, despite how invasive it may appear, are extremely interested in tracking the location of their children. When I think about how frequently my own parents use Apple's Find My to check on the whereabouts of my younger siblings, it's likely that if they were any younger, they'd be sporting some sort of kid's wearable by now.
