You can Ring my bell: Amazon pays ONE BEEEEELLION+ dollars for smart home upstart

Fully squaring up to Google in the smart home world, Amazon has gobbled smart home upstart Ring, apparently paying more than a billion dollars for it. The acquisition is a smart one (geddit?) for the Seattle e-commerce monster, as it tries to build on top of its Alexa digital assistant but risks being outflanked by Google and …

[Anonymous Coward]

'In short, it's full speed ahead for the smart home market'

1bn for a crappy IoT doorbell??? I lament the life another me is having in a parallel universe right now. Probably enjoying 'real tech' like hover-cars and robot-butlers. I'd settle for a window-washing / toilet-cleaner robot right now.

[inmypjs]

Re: 'In short, it's full speed ahead for the smart home market'

"crappy IoT doorbell"

Well more than a doorbell and while it looks wonderful in their adverts the reviews I have seen do class it as crappy.

Has ring got that many (dumb) customers? You would think you could design and put into production a 'better' crappy IoT doorbell for much less than a billion and Amazon has plenty of name and company to back it up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Great! - More 'Stasi Tech'

"Nest announced it was incorporating Google Assistant into its products – meaning that its products will seamlessly work with Google Home"

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/opening-our-digital-door-to-welcome-in-tech-stasi-police-1.3155208

[Mayday]

No thanks.

My locks and security system are not connected to the "cloud" under any circumstances.

Although if I were Mr Siminoff I'd be happy as a pig in shit.

[Tessier-Ashpool]

Re: No thanks.

You're missing out, then. An alert on my phone from the smoke alarms is always welcome, as it's invariably a sign that the boy is having a nonchalent fry-up and smoking out the house.

[Mark Jan]

Netatmo?

That was enough for Amazon to realize it needed to move fast on smart cameras, smart doorbells and smart security systems. And there was only one company doing it all that was available to buy: Ring.

What about Netatmo?

[David Leigh 1]

'...the Jeff-Bezos-run web bazaar is indeed sliding Ring onto its finger.' Surely 'sliding its finger into Ring'?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you buy one of these Amazon will be sliding its finger into your ring.

[Swarthy]

I am looking forward to further El Reg articles on Amazon's Ring-piece.

[joed]

all in

Soon to be your landlord and the company store.

All the while you keep paying for tax breaks your dumb-witted local government promised them to setup a sweatshops and some office space in your region.

[Androgynous Cow Herd]

Congrats to the Ring team

I wouldn't buy your product before and still won’t, but to those people who started the thing...congrats on the exit. Take the money and get out...Amazon is a sh*thole.

Once you’re lucky...Twice you’re good.

[Zog_but_not_the_first]

Missed the opportunity to invest...?

In the Internet of shit Internet of things? You should kick yourself...

With these....

[Johnny_Punter]

What about the purchase of Blink by Amazon some months ago, you missed that one.

[MrXavia]

one billion for a product not fit for purpose? wow.....

[Warm Braw]

Its Wi-Fi doorbell battery degraded pretty fast

I've recently purchased a neat little wireless doorbell that generates enough energy from pressing the bellpush to send the activation signal to the chime. I would have preferred one of these but it wouldn't easily fit on a glazed door.

Perhaps the answer is to fit the doorbell with a little handle you have to turn to ring the bell - much like an old telephone magneto. Oh, and not use WiFi.

[Beech Horn]

"As for Apple and its HomeKit. Still only for fanbois, we're afraid."

Apart from Nest, most devices (I am aware of) have HomeKit support or will soon have HomeKit support (without needing Homebridge, etc) - Ring included:

https://twitter.com/ring/status/968592090098671616

[Anonymous Coward]

Suddenly you ask your Google Home or Amazon Echo

google what and amazon what?

[Tessier-Ashpool]

No thanks

If you've ever held one of these things in your hand, you'll realise that it's a bit on the cheap side. Nest doorbell looks much better.

[Cuddles]

I just bought a smart doorbell

There's a little button next to the door, and if someone presses it it notifies me that there's someone outside by making a loud noise. If I'm not at home, I let them know by not answering the door. This seems to be about the limit of how smart a doorbell needs to be.

[2Nick3]

Re: I just bought a smart doorbell

If the doorbell was smart enough to push cattle-prod voltage out through the finger pressing it should that finger be attached to someone I didn't really want ringing my doorbell (basically anyone wanting something from me, with the exception of the Girl Scouts if they're selling cookies), THAT would be a smart doorbell!

[Robert Moore]

Re: I just bought a smart doorbell

You should patent this technology. You could be next in line to cash a $1B cheque from Amazon.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who has he been blowing?

Wow who was he blowing - when it all went horrendously wrong last year I got an email from the Ring CEO saying it wasn't working because AWS was down which was bollocks.

I never did get a response to my email saying I was an AWS certified SA and could I help them with their autoscaling policies.

Even funnier was when a Ring support staffer posted on Reddit with her secondary account which revealed she was a squirter!

Hopefully now they're under Amazon control they'll actually get this thing working as it was sold - my Ring Pro has been a buggy mess with Android since I bought it back in October.

[mark l 2]

Don't see the value in spending that amount on Ring, The tech isn't that innovative its just a wireless webcam which connects to an app on a phone. I am sure Amazon could have knocked up their own 'Fire bell' version for considerably less money.

[skwdenyer]

Overseas expansion

I think the bit people are missing is that Ring is a fantastic name if you want to expand into non-English-speaking countries. Onomatopoeia at its best. Nest doesn't translate at all well, by comparison.

Amazon are not just buying tech; they're buying what should be the go-to brand name in this space.