All I Want For Christmas Is Disruption

By admin_45 in Blog

With Christmas just 12 days away, we thought we’d show you all the most-popular tech gifts that will make Holiday 2018 a season of disruption (plus maybe give any late shoppers among you some ideas)! Here’s a rundown of the top selling products:

#1 – The most wished for products in electronics on Amazon:

• Echo Dot, $29.99 (smart speaker)
• Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, $24.99 (streaming media player)
• Apple AirPods, $159.00 (wireless ear buds)
• Echo Spot, $99.99 (smart display with Alexa)
• Ring Wi-Fi Enabled Video Doorbell that works with Alexa, $99.99
• Kindle, $99.99 (e-reader)
• Amazon Fire HD Tablet, $59.99

Source: Amazon

#2 – Hot Consumer Tech products at reasonable prices. Given that some of the most popular tech gifts this year are already backordered or sold out until early next year, Business Insider put together a list of devices available at stores without mark ups:

• The Amazon Echo, $69.99 on Amazon (speaker with smart assistant Alexa)
• The Wyze Cam, $25.98 on Amazon (affordable home security camera)
• Apple AirPods, $159.99 at Apple (wireless ear buds)
• The Fire 7 Tablet, $49.99 on Amazon or the Apple iPad, $279.99 on Amazon
• The Ring Video Doorbell, $99.99 on Amazon (home security device that Amazon bought earlier this year)
• Philips Hue Smart Lighting Starter Kit, $89.99 on Amazon (smart light bulbs to control with an app)
• The EcoVac Deebot N79S, $174.99 on Amazon (robot vacuum)
• Fire TV Stick, $24.99 on Amazon (streaming media player)
• The Fitbit Charge 3, $128.96 at Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart (new smart watch model)

Source: Business Insider

#3 – For the media/showbiz-conscious, Hollywood trade mag Variety also aggregated what people are buying online this year, and noted that Adobe reports the top products include: “Dell and Lenovo laptops, LG and Samsung TVs, streaming devices (including Roku, Chromecast, and Amazon Fire TV), and gaming consoles, like the Nintendo Switch.”

• Microsoft Xbox One S 1TB Fortnite Bundle, $249.99 at Walmart
• Nintendo Switch, $299 at Walmart
• Super Smash Brothers Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch ($59.88 at Walmart) and God of War for PS4 ($39.99 at Walmart)
• Apple iPad Pro, $999.99 at Best Buy
• Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, $49.99 on Amazon
• Nest Outdoor Security Camera, $279.13 on Amazon
• LG 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV (has AI capabilities and a built-in Google Assistant), $1.796.99 on Amazon

Source: Variety

Bottom line, automating or adding smart capabilities to regular products continues to gain steam with consumers each Holiday season (i.e. vacuums, TVs, security systems, light bulbs, speakers, watches, etc.). Based on this list, it’s not just tech that continues to make Christmas an enabler of disruption, but continues to extend Amazon’s competitive advantages as well. That’s no surprise since the company is at the forefront of many of these tech-enabled efforts, but we think it’s just a matter of time before Amazon can break away from its neck and neck market cap race with Apple, and dethrone Microsoft over time. Not only do many of their own tech/smart products best their competitors, but they are also a major purchasing destination for their rivals’ offerings as well.