Can a costly entertainment system to play with your kids from miles away spell success for Amazon?
If Hollywood wanted to make the wildly popular “Home Alone” series of hit comedy films today they might need a different plot.
The idea that actor Macaulay Culkin, who plays an 8-year-old boy, who gets left behind by his family by mistake, and ends up all alone at home for the holidays, seems outlandish today.
It is not something that kids are likely to experience these days.
With the overwhelming invasion of technology, cameras, mobile phones, multiple screens and virtual assistants, being alone is highly unlikely, even for children.
And Amazon (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report is here to add to that clutter, and potentially make more money off it, with a new device that allows for kids and adults to play board games, sketch and read together even when they aren’t with each other in the same apartment or room.
The Seattle tech giant’s latest device “Glow,” is similar in size to an old fashioned payphone, the ones installed in phone booths, and is designed to make video calling more enjoyable for kids.
Glow is a countertop entertainment device that comes with a projector that creates a 19-inch, touch-sensitive space in front of the child and the adult on the other end of the video call can interact with the game or activity using their Glow app.
Glow is designed so that each person has a clear view of the other as they simultaneously engage in real-time activities, the company said.
Amazon
Kids Could Become Lifelong Consumers?
Amazon’s new video-calling gadget is targeted at working parents but also the kids who may end up becoming Amazon consumers after getting used to Glow.
“As part of product development, we were influenced by child-development research that shows regular, active, and interactive play between children and loving adults can improve the lives of young children,” Amazon Glow General Manager Joerg Tewes claimed.
The focus is that the device allows kids to “do” things with their parents rather than just passively listening. This playful learning apparently helps working parents and extended family members develop deeper bonds with the children, Amazon said.
The $299 Amazon Glow, which was tested among working truck driver parents, comes with a one year subscription of Amazon’s Kids+.
The subscription includes thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games.
Early reviews of the device showed that a three-year-old picked up on how to use Glow quickly but experienced some practical issues while using the laser projected touch mat.
While another reviewer wrote that it was a “big hit” with his four-year-old son.
There are no ads or Alexa on the device.
