Josh Hendrickson
Amazon is buying the mesh Wifi company Eero, in a bid to strengthen its smarthome offerings. As more smart devices rely on Wi-Fi, Amazon needs a powerful network connection offering, and Eero is the solution.
If nothing else, CES 2019 showed that Wi-Fi smart devices are coming in full force. Unfortunately, current Wi-Fi standards are less powerful and traverse less distance on their own than ZigBee or Z-Wave mesh standards, and this is a problem for Amazon’s smart home ambitions. Most of Amazon’s current smart home offerings (from Ring to Echo to its smart outlets) are Wi-Fi devices.
While Google already has a mesh system that can help with this problem, if Amazon wanted to offer mesh Wi-Fi it needed to either build a new system from the ground up or buy a robust existing system. It opted for the latter and chose Eero for the latest acquisition.
Amazon and Eero say that together they can work for a better smarthome experience, as Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices and Services, explains in a press release:
We have a shared vision that the smart home experience can get even easier, and we’re committed to continue innovating on behalf of customers.
Amazon’s purchase of Ring seems to have gone smoothly, so if that track record is anything to go by, Eero should remain a viable product post-purchase, as opposed to being shut down and folded into another existing product.
