Amazon has big plans for the next five years that include growing the workforce at its Silicon Valley division by at least 27 percent as the company tests smart home devices and wearables.
The Seattle-based online marketplace has been branching out into hardware with devices such as the Kindle e-reader and the not-so-successful Amazon Fire smartphone. One of its potential gadgets is a one-button device that could be used to order supplies, Reuters reported in an exclusive.
The Lab126 division, Amazon's secretive hardware unit in Silicon Valley, will increase its full-time staff to at least 3,757 people by 2019.
"We will continue to invent and create new features, services and products, and to support this innovation. Lab 126 is also growing very quickly," said Amazon spokeswoman Kinley Pearsall, as quoted by Reuters.
The wireless one-button device, a simple gadget that would be kept in a kitchen or closet, would allow customers to order household products at the touch of a connected button, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. While Amazon is boosting investment into smart home devices, the gadget may or may not make it to market, the source noted.
Lab126 is also looking to develop devices that would alert customers when air conditioner filters need to be replaced and washing machines need to be serviced.
Amazon plans to invest $55 million into Lab126 operations in Sunnyvale and Cupertino. If the workforce is boosted by 3,757, Amazon should get $1.2 million in tax breaks from the state of California.
Tech companies have been progressively gaining on the "Internet of things" front with more smart home devices and wearables. Google and Amazon could eventually go head-to-head in the competition to connect consumers' homes. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company purchased Nest, a maker of smart thermostats, in January of this year for $3.2 billion.
Nest, which is purportedly still a separate company from Google, introduced a connected home standard called Thread over the summer.
"All these things need a standard. Nobody wants to buy a TV and have to make sure their speakers are compliant," said Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon, as earlier quoted by Reuters. "But we're in an experimentation phase with the Internet of things. It's early days and nobody knows what it's eventually going to look like."
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