Astro-nomical Business Boost: Amazon Selling $2,350 Robot!
Amazon.com Inc. is launching a $2,350 edition of its Astro robot, targeting the business sector in an attempt to revive a product that has struggled to gain traction among consumers.
The new model, designed to act as a mobile security guard, costs $750 more than the consumer version launched two years ago. It also comes with a $60 monthly subscription to Astro Secure, which Amazon says allows the robot to patrol areas on its own.
Ever since Amazon first announced Astro in 2021, the company has promised a Jetson-like vision of robots that handle household tasks. The $1,600 wheeled device has a flat screen and a periscope camera and can respond to Alexa voice commands. But Amazon has been slow to ship the robot in large quantities, and it remains a niche product that many consumers don’t even know about.
With the new version, Amazon can have a clearer application: helping companies keep an eye on their premises. Although the robot’s hardware is similar to the original model, it can patrol 5,000 square meters (465 square feet), compared to 3,500 square meters (3,500 square feet) of the consumer version.
The offering is part of a growing range of Amazon security services that have become a key focus since the company bought smart doorbell maker Ring in 2018. Amazon sells Ring Protect Pro for $20 a month to store security footage and footage. A $99/month option that can call emergency services if a problem is detected.
All told, the services cost about $180 a month — on top of Astro’s price tag, which costs businesses thousands of dollars. This represents a particularly ambitious effort by Amazon’s hardware division to generate more recurring revenue.
Amazon started testing some security services last year on the existing Astro. The increased mapping area required more storage and memory capacity, necessitating a price increase, the Seattle-based company said. The user experience of the robot is also tailored for companies.
Amazon is trying to recoup years of investment in developing Astro. Bloomberg first reported that the bot was in the works back in 2018, and the product was once introduced internally as a major initiative. But Amazon has become notorious for killing once-cherished projects, and Astro likely needs to become a solid seller or risk going out of business.
It’s been a tumultuous year for Amazon’s device business, with many top executives who supported Astro leaving the company. Amazon recently hired Panos Panay, a former chief product officer at Microsoft Corp., as its new head of devices and Alexa.
