Amazon’s popular voice assistant, Alexa, will make its first debut in a non-Amazon produced electronic device—a lamp—in September.
GE Lighting (“GE”) and Amazon (“AMZN”) said Friday that the lamp, called C by GE Sol, will cost $200.
Announced last year, C by GE Sol is a circular lamp that looks like a large ring and can sit on a bedside table. The device connects to the Internet and has Alexa built into it so that it can answer questions, plays music on command, order dinner, and buy goods from Amazon.com.
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The lamp also includes other bells and whistles, so to speak, such as various hues based on when you are going to sleep or waking up. For example, a warm light is used to increase melatonin before bed, while a cool light will helps produce energy in the morning.
Users can also create certain hues to associate with certain tasks. So if you are asking Alexa to check the time, you can designate a specific type of light.
The question is whether consumers will shell out another $20 more to spend on an Alexa-enabled light rather than buy Amazon’s own device, Echo, which costs $179.9 and also offers Alexa.
GE is offering a 20% discount for consumers who commit to buying the lamp early. However, this discount may not extend to the appliance’s launch date. GE had originally said that the light would be priced below the Echo. But Echo does not include a voice-controlled light.
This is likely the first of many devices we’ll see incorporating Alexa. By enlisting popular manufacturers like GE, Amazon wants to encourage greater adoption of its virtual assistant as it competes with rival technologies from Apple and Google.