CES is the time of the year when companies lay out visions for the future. It is also the time when trends begin to emerge.GE, a massive company, known for its innovation, recently sold off GE Appliances to Haier, who plans to continue with a strong focus on connected. This year at CES 2017, GE Appliances is partnering with Drop and Nest Protect. Both of these add another level of convenience to GE Appliances, like an oven or stove, that you might have in your kitchen.
I had the pleasure chatting with Liz VerSchure, a Vice President at GE Appliances, who heads up the connected team. She oversees the connected strategy for GE Appliances, an increasingly important focus for the company.
Currently, many of GE’s connected appliances have integration with Amazon’s Alexa. Meaning that if you have an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot in your house, you can control your Fridge or Washer. The list goes on, and you can ask Alexa to see if your laundry is finished or to pre-heat the oven. GE Appliances also offers the Dash Replenishment Service but takes it to another level. As you don’t need to order it by pushing an Amazon Dash Button, but instead the appliances can order it themselves once you hit a threshold. These connected features help to add convenience and to keep peace of mind.
But in the future, Liz and the team at GE Appliances want to extend the life cycle of these devices and to continue to provide great service. As you have to remember each one of these appliances has a mini computer in them and they can get updates which could enable new features in the future. So, GE Appliances is definitely committed to enhancing the connected home experience. And I think these two partnerships are hopefully setting a pattern for the company.
Liz ended our chat by noting that GE Appliances has many connected appliances launching this year. These are devices that will have the Amazon Alexa voice integration and will work with their partners. And while the company is not currently collaborating with a full smart home ecosystem as of yet, Liz and the team are looking into other services for the future.
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