Electrolux plans to sell an oven later this year that streams live video to your phone or tablet, so you can keep an eye on a roast from anywhere in your home if not beyond.
In an article by Bloomberg it is said that the new connected oven will launch later this year. Users will be able to download recipes to a companion app, and view a live feed of the cooking chamber through a built-in camera.
Electrolux has shown off the streaming video concept before. But now it sounds like the company is ready to move forward with an actual product. It’s unclear how much it’ll cost, or even when it’ll actually be available.
The oven apparently is part of a larger push by Electrolux to interact more with its users through smart home features. The Let’s Taste app already allows users of some steam oven models to view recipes on mobile devices, and the plan is to create a community where users can share tips. Electrolux has previously said that it wants to interact with other connected devices, for instance showing alerts on your television then the food is ready.
Jan Brockmann, Electrolux’s chief operating officer, told Bloomberg that he expects smart appliances to make up 10 percent of the market in five years. “This is a year of massive launches,” Brockmann said.
Electrolux appears to be thinking that the market share will grow to around 5% for connected appliances from a starting point currently of less than 1%. It appears that customers either do not see the need for the functionality (much as we don’t either) or, they are simply not willing to pay the premium for such features.
This may be a risk however as connected appliances have been launched multiple times over the past decade or so and, thus far, every attempt has not gained much if any traction at all. As the market share figures would seem to indicate.