Amazon announced Build It on Wednesday, a Kickstarter-like app that lets you order potential products that the company will only build if it gets enough support within 30 days. Three days later, the first product has already reached its goal: Smart Sticky Note Printer starts shipping somewhere between July and September.
Built It pre-orders a special price that is only charged if and when the product is shipped. If the pre-order goal is not reached, the product will not be built and no one will be charged. This is a low-risk way for Amazon to experiment with potential new products without doing the full cost of market research and user testing that is usually required to prove demand. Given the success of Kickstarter and Indiegogo, Amazon might as well try the model for its own hardware development process.
The three Build It products available for pre-order are all Alexa-powered devices. Amazon’s approach to throwing Alexa products against the wall to see which sticks can be expensive. All three Build It products are a ‘Day 1 Editions concept’ – Amazon has previously applied this label to two products they are considering producing based on early user feedback: the Echo Frames smart glasses that have been given the green light , and the Loop Smart Ring which does not.
With the first Build It device, you can print notes using Alexa (this must be connected to a compatible Echo device). Because it is a thermal printer, it never needs ink or toner. Although the initial price of $ 90 includes one yellow roll of adhesive paper, you will need to refill it with yellow, blue, pink, or white paper when the first roll is finished. Now that the target has been reached, the price will rise in the Pacific on March 19 at 8:59 a.m., although Amazon did not specify by how much.
The other two products, Smart Nutrition Scale ($ 35) and Smart Cuckoo Clock ($ 80), are 42% and 37% of their targets, respectively. Unlike Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which display a total amount or total number of pre-orders as their goals, Build It campaigns show only a percentage progress bar.
Given the month-long goal window, it looks like the first Build It products are winners. Three days later, it appears that Amazon’s bet is working on the hype of crowdfunding campaigns.
We asked Amazon at what point the thermal sticker had reached its goal and how many products the company expected to build. We will update this article when we hear it.