Strategy

Amazon Reportedly Developing Alexa-Powered Smart Glasses

Amazon wants to get in your face with its next product. The online retailer is working on smart glasses, powered by its Alexa AI assistant, according to a report by the Financial Times.

"The device will reportedly look like a regular pair of glasses and use bone-conduction technology so that the user can hear Alexa without the need for earphones or conventional speakers," according to The Verge.

With these glasses, Amazon is hoping to misstep the headaches that came from other doomed forays into smart eye wear. For example, the failed Google Glass raised concerns about whether wearers were recording them. Amazon's glasses won't include a camera. Instead, the gadget would be a way to use your smartphone without having to take it out of your pocket or purse and open an app. That would make them useful in a vehicle or on the street, especially if the technology were incorporated into a wearer's everyday eyeglasses, speculates Engadget.

Eschewing a camera and screen could be a good move, analysts say, because it would dramatically improve the glasses' battery life. Plus, it should shorten the development process significantly, so they can get into users' hands - and in front of their eyeballs - sooner. Whether the product will prove a hit remains to be seen. Though Amazon seems to be on a can't-lose streak of late, Engadget reminds us that the tech giant has had its share of flops, such as the Fire Phone.

There's no word yet on what Amazon's smart glasses would be called, though reports have said they could be available in time for Christmas. Amazon has not confirmed the news.