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Amazon Kills The Physical Dash Button

The Amazon Dash buttons that facilitated one-touch ordering are falling by the wayside.

The little plastic buttons that consumers could tap to be sent paper towels, laundry detergent, printer paper and a range of other household goods from Amazon are being retired as people move to more digital forms of ordering, most notably via Amazon’s smart agent Alexa.

“We’ve seen customers increasingly using programs like Alexa Shopping, which provides a hands-free shopping experience, and Subscribe and Save, which lets customers automatically receive items every month,” an Amazon spokesperson told me in an email.  “We’ve decided to shift the Dash program focus as of February 28, Dash button devices are no longer available for purchase on Amazon globally. Existing Dash button customers can continue to use their Dash button devices.”

The reality is that product replenishment capabilities are now being built in to connected home devices.

For example, LG Electronics recently announced that Dash replenishment capabilities were being incorporated into its entire lineup of Wi-Fi enabled dishwashers, washing machines and dryers.

Having to push a button to make something happen is so not IoT.

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