One Click Life
By: Connor Lenahan
Amazon may have just introduced one of the most fascinating bits of technology I have seen in some time. As the picture above tells, Amazon Dash Button is a new product that the supplier giant will be rolling out in the near future. The Dash Button is interesting in that it is an incredibly logical step towards tying together real life and technology more than ever before.
Take a second to consider the following – how often have you been sitting at home/in your dorm and notice that your supply stash of something essential (napkins, laundry detergent, soda, whatever) is dwindling. Obviously a replacement will need to be purchased. However, given that I, for one, am fairly dumb, I am prone to forgetting to pick something up unless I am literally holding an empty version of it in my hands while in my local supermarket. Further difficulties come from the transportation of said supplies. Given that I live in a city it is hard to take a full grocery store run home with me on any given day. This is especially troublesome when the whole “and I use a wheelchair” portion is added to the equation.
So Amazon looked at the situation and took it a few ways. They created Dash Button to eliminate the delay that causes essentials to be forgotten. They tapped into their Prime offerings to create a great timetable for potential difficulties. They also continued to intertwine our lives with technology in a beneficial manner.
If you don’t think this is cool then I don’t know what to tell you. This, as an idea, is revolutionary. Let’s not get into the same old conversation that will inevitably happen when Dash Button actually gets released – does it work? How well? Is it worth it? These are all valid questions that can be dealt with later. Right now, however, let’s focus on how cool of a concept this is.
Amazon is already a go to shopping marketplace for millions of people, this much is true by looking at the company’s kajillion dollar net worth. At this point Amazon is playing with house money and then some. It’s not like this one device is suddenly going to allow for some competitor – and really, is there anyone that would be able to compete with Amazon at this point? – to take the top spot from a new idea like this. So Amazon gets an idea that could, in theory and possibly practice, revolutionize the way in which we look at some regular grocery needs. Look, I’m not saying that suddenly Weis and Wegmans are going to go out of business, rather that it’s without a doubt interesting to consider that this might eventually become a way of life.
As it stands now there are not any Dash Buttons that will keep me stocked up with Bagel Bites and Cheetos, but I’m willing to concede those additions to the second wave. The current roll out will have Kraft, Clorox, Olay, Tide, Bounty, Huggies, Gatorade (!), Olay cosmetics, and Izze beverages, among others. Frankly that’s not half bad. Those are some big names (and Izze) that are getting behind the Dash Button.
This is brand new and will obviously take a long, long time to make an impact if it gets that far at all. However, as it stands today, we just got a lot closer to one-click living.