At this year’s CES, despite the war of voice assistants, Whirlpool has revealed appliances that have Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa integrated into them and that also integrate with Yummly.
The concept is explained in this video from The Verge:
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So here we have what might look to be the first incarnation of connected appliances that might still work for some people.
But, what happens when it breaks?
How long will these things be supported and how secure is your data on them as, so far, no whitegoods manufacturer has an exactly stellar record when it comes to security.
But our big concern is the obsolesce of the electronics in these products as we are seeing more and more parts going obsolete sooner than ever due to low volumes and, with niche products like these we’d expect that may well be an issue down the road. Aside which, the cost of boards and stuff like that will probably be enough to give most people a heart attack!
Amazon obviously hopes users will buy stuff from them off teh back of this deal too and that also could prove costly.
Then of course there’s the upfront cost in addition to what a standard appliance will cost and all taken together, you have to wonder if it’s worth the cost.
There again, Whirlpool it is said, might flop flop and use Google Assistant so this may be obsolete before it even reaches stores.
Our advice, wait and see what happens before jumping in on this one.
