Amazon.com Inc. is discontinuing its pandemic-era children’ video calling machine amid lackluster gross sales and a shift in shopper conduct.
Launched a yr in the past, the Amazon Glow emerged from the corporate’s Grand Problem moonshot laboratory. It appeared the proper pandemic-era product: a mixture video display screen and projector that helped youngsters get face time, play video games, learn and even draw with distant kin.
However gross sales have been sluggish, and Amazon is now trying to shift staff who labored on the gadget into different roles.
“At Amazon we predict massive, experiment, and spend money on new concepts to please clients,” mentioned Amazon spokeswoman Kristy Schmidt, who confirmed the Glow’s cancellation. “We additionally regularly consider the progress and potential of our merchandise to ship buyer worth, and we usually make changes based mostly on these assessments. We can be sharing updates and steering with Glow clients quickly.”
Amazon has taken numerous measures to restrain prices as gross sales development stagnates, together with shuttering warehouses and freezing hiring for company jobs in its retail enterprise.
Reviewers praised the machine’s idea, however mentioned it felt unfinished. A month-to-month subscription to an Amazon kid-focused service and a advice that the particular person on the opposite finish use a pill, not a smartphone, additionally might have restricted its attraction. The machine additionally hit the market as many customers started to renew their regular habits following the discharge of Covid-19 vaccines.
Amazon doesn’t disclose gross sales knowledge for its electronics, however Glow had about 500 buyer critiques on the corporate’s retail web site, low even by the usual of Amazon’s area of interest or experimental merchandise. Glow was steeply discounted on Tuesday, listed at $150 for members of Amazon’s Prime program, 55% off the record value. Later within the day, it was unavailable.
Amazon’s units group has produced such hits because the Echo good speaker and Fireplace streaming sticks, but in addition has a historical past of launching units that appear to be in search of a goal. A voice-activated microwave oven launched in 2018 by no means caught on with customers, and Amazon’s effort to make its personal smartphone, the Fireplace Telephone launched in 2014, stays its largest dud.