Amazon has a vision of the future and it is on display in a model home in Irvine, California.
Visitors can use the company’s Alexa voice assistant to turn on the lights, lower the blinds, adjust the thermostat and tell them who is at the front door. They can watch television and films from Amazon’s streaming business on its Fire TV device and listen to music on an Amazon Echo smart speaker. And they can reorder toilet paper from the company’s core ecommerce business, with the push of an Amazon Dash button installed in the bathroom.
As Amazon tries to work its way deeper into its customers’ lives, physically and online, it is nipping at the heels of Apple in the race to become the first public company valued at $1tn, and Jeff Bezos, the founder, has become the world’s richest man.