In a bit of Amazon-centric news, yesterday, Tuesday February 27, 2018, Amazon purchased start-up doorbell maker Ring for an estimated $1 Billion. You read that right: $1,000,000,000.00.
While many of you likely make purchases from Amazon, this purchase dwarfs even your lifetime purchases from the e-commerce giant. In fact, it’s likely that this deal is Amazon’s second-largest acquisition ever, paled only by the $13.5 Billion the online retailer paid for Whole Foods just last year.
So what is “Ring”, anyway? Ring makes Internet-of-Things enabled doorbells. These doorbells not only interface with WiFi and voice assistants, but also come equipped with motion sensor and video cameras. With these features, Ring doorbells sends notifications to the user when somebody is at the door; it also enables users to talk directly to visitors without needing to be face-to-face — or even home at all! Users can keep tabs on movement outside their doors as well as tap into a live video stream at any time.
Obviously, Amazon is big into Internet-of-Things enabled devices, emphasized by their Alexa service and the voice assistant’s newest IoT-bridge enabled Echo Plus housing. With this purchase, expect Ring doorbells to integrate more tightly into the Alexa voice assistant service, perhaps eschewing rival Apple’s HomeKit framework altogether.
Amazon’s play here might not be getting into IoT-enabled device manufacturing, but rather a play into security and circumventing package theft. Package theft is not a new problem for Amazon, as the company has innovated in areas of package lockers and package hubs for apartment buildings, all in an effort to cut down on package theft. As recently as 2017, Amazon even introduced its own Cloud Cam security camera which, when coupled with a product called “Amazon Key,” allows delivery drivers to leave packages inside of customers’ homes when the customer is not even home!
There’s no doubt that Amazon will make millions from selling Ring doorbells directly from consumers. However, the Billion-Dollar price tag may suggest that Amazon is looking to improve delivery reliability, and thus consumer satisfaction, by allowing for increased front-stoop security to eliminate package theft altogether. Time will tell whether Ring doorbells will be Amazon’snext best-seller. Nevertheless, perhaps the purchase is reasonable considering other services and features it could allow Amazon to provide.
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