Martijn Meester

5/5 (2)

Following their entrance into the Dutch online retail market, web and streaming services, tech-giant Amazon has made a new announcement; they have a new drone! After the delivery drone, operational in the US, their newest flying baby is a small security drone with camera included. This apparatus is part of the Ring product line, which stems from electrical doorbells. The doorbells, and now these drones, come with a broadly compatible app on which a user can view through the eyes of this doorbell. The Always Home cam is made small because it is meant to fly in the living room. According to Marc Hijink, technology-expert and columnist at Dutch newspaper NRC, the all-seeing eye of Amazon is now expanding the insides of your living room. This news has, as a lot of technological innovations do, two sides to the story. One being the story about development, innovation, evolution and progress. The other one unmistakably being the privacy discussion. The launch of this new product has happened in the United States a few days ago and chances are Europe is next. Is Europe to welcome or halt these types of products from Amazon? (Hijink, 2020) (The Verge, 2020)
First up, progress. In what way is this product going to help the consumer, and what kind of impact can the Always Home cam have on your life? The dronecam works autonomous and detects unrecognised movement in your living room, so it can help identifying burglars or scare them away. Furthermore, it can help when you are at work and have young kids at home, or a dog that likes to scratch its’ nails on your couch. Now you are able to see and prevent this live. Pretty convenient, right? (Hijink, 2020) (The Guardian, 2020)
The other side to the story is the privacy discussion. Amazon does not have a cleared name in that sense, as illustrated by few of the links below this post. Critics of Amazon like to bring the well-known voice assistant Alexa to the table. This device hearing you talk within the four walls of your living room in combination with the data management of Amazon (The Verge, 2019), is seen by some as evil. Now, with the Always Home cam, Alexa is given eyes.
People should always pay attention to what they are buying. In recent times decision making on retail products has gained a new dimension. It seems as though the concerns about capabilities of new products from tech-mastodonts are increasing, and rightfully so. In other words, downsides of a product concerning privacy are increasing when comparing them to the advantages, which seem more and more redundant. Write down in the comments what you think about this, so there can be a discussion on if products like the Always Home cam are a good development or not.

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2020/09/29/het-wakend-oog-van-amazon-a4013870https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/sidewalk/privacy_security_whitepaper_final.pdfhttps://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/09/alexa-are-you-invading-my-privacy-the-dark-side-of-our-voice-assistantshttps://www.theverge.com/2020/9/24/21451702/amazon-hardware-event-live-blog-news-announcements-productshttps://www.theverge.com/2019/7/3/20681423/amazon-alexa-echo-chris-coons-data-transcripts-recording-privacy

5/5 (1)

From the month of march onwards, our lives have been disrupted like never before. The home office has become the new normal, as well as digital yoga classes or parties where one has to stay seated in stead of dancing. COVID-19 has disrupted our lives, but also caused several disruptions that could be extrapolated to the digital word. As mentioned, a lot of online activities have been going online since we are more often than not confined to our bedrooms or newly acclaimed home offices. One aspect of business that could be next in line for a (digital) disruption is pricing. Demand in a lot of markets has never been more unpredictable, which makes pricing decisions increasingly difficult. Next to this, it is a challenge for entrepreneurs and businesses to adapt their operations to the current situation and the future simultaneously, as changing back or again after this crisis might be too costly.

According to Stef Driessen, sector banker leisure for ABN AMRO, this is the right moment to introduce dynamic pricing into more markets than just the traveling industry. Dynamic pricing is a way of pricing where an algorithm is used to determine the price of a certain product. Driessen states that this concept could be applicable to industries like events and leisure. For the leisure industry this could be a ticket price for an amusement park that is based on the (predicted) demand, just like airplane tickets! This could maximise profits for the leisure industry, which is currently struggling according to the Financial Times on 15 Sep. 20. Another argument for bringing dynamic pricing into the leisure industry is that is stops price wars. According to the article How to Fight a Price War, a company that engages in a price will always have the risk of losing it, with big financial consequences. Dynamic pricing could be a great solution to help this industry get back in the game.

Let me know in the comments if you agree or disagree with this statement, different views on the topic can always prove helpful.

Amazon, now everywhere

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How a real-life disruption could invoke digital disruption for the leisure industry

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