Image Courtesy: The Verge
According to Bloomberg, Amazon experimented with another approach to integrate itself into you and your family’s lives by developing an Alexa-enabled wearable for children. According to reports obtained by Bloomberg, the gadget was evaluated for Amazon’s 2020 product plan, and it would have contributed to the company’s expanding array of kid-focused digital goods.
The $99 wearable, codenamed “Seeker,” is said to have GPS, voice control (probably for Alexa features), and is aimed towards youngsters aged four to twelve. The finer aspects of the device’s physical appearance appear to be up in the air. According to Bloomberg, the wearable might have been a clip, keychain, or bracelet. The objective seems to be to provide parents with access to exclusive Amazon Kids Plus material (previously Amazon FreeTime Unlimited) while also allowing them to follow and connect with their children. Amazon is also said to have collaborated with Disney on a wearable nicknamed the “Magic Band.”
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This would not have been Amazon’s first foray into the world of children’s technology. Since 2018, the Echo Dot Kids Edition has been bringing Alexa into children’s playrooms and bedrooms. Amazon has added some fascinating features to its child-friendly speakers and tablets, such as helping youngsters learn to read, but the firm has also been chastised in the past for how Alexa may purportedly breach children’s privacy by keeping voice recordings.
Despite worries about children’s privacy and the overall lack of facts about this wearable, it makes sense that Amazon would aim to enter this market. Plenty of other businesses have tried, whether it’s Fitbit’s Ace 3 for monitoring kids’ physical activity or Apple’s Apple Watch SE, which is basically a cheaper wristwatch but was marketed with an emphasis on Apple’s Family Setup feature.
There are several motivations to market devices to children (another source of valuable data, for example), but the most prevalent seems to be that parents, no matter how intrusive it may appear, want to track their children’s location. Given how frequently my parents use Apple’s Find My to track the whereabouts of my younger siblings, if they were any younger, they’d be wearing some type of kid’s wearable by now.
