Online retail giant Amazon and homebuilder Lennar are teaming up to create “experience showrooms” that feature smart-home technology.
“Amazon, Google, Apple—most of the technology-centric companies are starting to think about the home as a centerpiece for the way they think about the future of how their products work and how [users] interact with them,” Stuart Miller, executive chairman of Lennar, told CNBC. “Home automation is a point of attraction. It’s a proxy for a lot of other things.”
New homes built by Lennar are Wi-Fi-certified, which means the internet is built into the walls and floors. Amazon owns smart-home companies, such as Ring, which create products that can be controlled through Amazon’s voice-controlled Alexa.
So far, Lennar is offering 14 showrooms across the country that feature Amazon smart-home tech, with more on the way. Amazon officials say some of the foot traffic the homebuilder is seeing comes from people who just want to try the technology but aren’t yet in the market for a new home.
“We wanted customers to experience a real home environment that showcases the convenience of the Alexa smart-home experience, great entertainment available with Prime, and Home Services,” Nish Lathia, general manager of Amazon Services, says. “Lennar offers the potential to enable this experience within easy driving distance of millions of customers.”
“There’s cross-pollination that could happen, where somebody may walk in the door interested in an Alexa product, and they may say really, ‘I’d love to have this home,’” David Kaiserman, president of Lennar, told CNBC.
Source: “Amazon and Lennar Team Up to Show and Sell Smart Home Tech,” CNBC (May 23, 2018)
