Amazon is quietly staffing up its Silicon Valley-based hardware lab as it gears up to create and test new connected home gadgets.
Lab126, the Amazon division behind hardware products like the Kindle Fire, will bring its full-time payroll to at least 3,757 in the next five years, Reuters reports in an exclusive story.
With this plan, detailed in an obscure government document, CEO Jeff Bezos’ plan to focus on hardware is affirmed. This despite lagging Kindle Fire sales and investors’ criticism of Amazon’s constant spending on long term pie-in-the-sky projects.
See also: Amazon Gets Serious About Hardware With 6 New Tablets
Sources told Reuters that Amazon will be investing $55 million into Lab126’s activities in an effort to prepare smart home devices to compete against Google and Apple.
Google, Apple, and now Amazon are all racing to create the ultimate platform for the Internet of things. In an era when dishwashers, refrigerators, and security systems have the potential to become self aware, technology companies all want to get in on the next big market.
The mobile phone industry has taught us that the device that ends up on top won’t only support the company’s products, but third party applications as well. As Amazon doubles down on the Internet of Things, it will need to work out a product that not only centralizes all the connected home devices, but streamlines the process better than anyone else.
Photo of Jeff Bezos by Steve Jurveston
