Tech giants race to get AI gadgets on shelves for holiday rush
With the holidays just a couple months away, tech companies are betting this is finally the year that AI gadgets make the shopping list.
Key points
- Apple, Amazon and Microsoft announced new AI devices in the past week ahead of the holiday shopping season.
- Analysts say the launches aim to teach consumers about AI and set up future device sales.
- Weak consumer sentiment and rising component costs could limit how many of the gadgets sell.
Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have each announced new AI-focused devices in the past week, aiming to bring generative artificial intelligence into homes before the holiday shopping season. The launches come nearly four years after ChatGPT was introduced, with the companies promoting improved personal assistants and faster on-device chips for new laptops, tablets, phones and smart home computers.
Success is not assured. Consumer sentiment is at its weakest in 12 years, largely because of stubborn inflation, and there are growing fears about AI safety risks as well as a learning curve for the new technology.
What the companies launched
Microsoft started the announcements by showing an Nvidia-powered Windows laptop starting at $2,599, built around an AI chip called RTX Spark that can run powerful AI without relying on the cloud. Amazon then released Alexa tablets, its first hardware named after its smart assistant, with the largest Alexa Tablet 12 Pro costing $550 compared to $155 for its predecessor, the Fire HD10.
On Tuesday of this week, Apple unveiled its HomeView smart home hub, powered by Siri AI. The $299 device has a 7-inch screen that can be mounted and facial recognition software for personalization across family members. Apple also said HomeView uses the A18 chip, which it called the fastest smartphone chip in the world when introduced in September 2024.
This is really about getting devices into consumers' hands, into consumers' homes, slowly teaching them how to use it, and getting feedback from them
— Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at IDC
Analyst caution on demand
Jitesh Ubrani, an analyst at IDC, said tech companies want to introduce AI to consumers to lay the groundwork for more aggressive device launches in the coming years. He said the new gadgets from Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are not expected to sell in large volumes, at least not yet.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, an analyst at Forrester, said the shopping season will be an early test of consumer demand for a new class of gadgets. He said consumers are interested in what AI can do, but it is less clear whether they want to buy hardware specifically because it is an AI device. Bain predicted U.S. holiday retail sales will top $1 trillion for the first time, though it cautioned that more than half of nominal sales growth will come from higher inflation.
