I try to avoid ad-powered devices or services as much as possible. Besides privacy implications, there is wasted time and bandwidth to consider among other things. On some systems, ads are often used in malware campaigns as well.
I do not really mind when companys sell products and make it very clear that they are ad-powered. It is your decision to buy it or skip it. I’d prefer an ad-free world, but that seems highly improbable. What I mind is if a company adds advertisement after you bought a device and did not make it clear back then that it could use the device to show you ads frequently or even all the time.
Amazon did this with Prime Video, which it turned from an ad-free streaming service into an ad-powered one for all users. You have to buy an add-on to get rid of ads, and even that does not get rid of all the ads, apparently.
Now, reports are coming in that Echo Show devices are being turned into full-screen advertisement billboards.
Echo Show devices fall into the smart home category. You can communicate with them using your voice and they may be used to control and monitor smart home devices, display photos, play media, help you with cooking, and more.
Some Echo Show devices are quite expensive. The Echo Show 21, Amazon’s latest device, costs $350 right now. Add some much needed peripheral, like an adjustable stand, and you end up paying $440 for the device with stand.
Some customers reported that they noticed full-screen display ads on their Echo Show devices for months, while others have not noticed them at all. It could be that Amazon is rolling this out slowly to go into damage-control-mode if things get out of hand regarding publicity, or that it is testing the waters.
Owners of said devices started to notice the ads, which may appear between photos, when you have set the device to show a photo slideshow. They may also show up when the device is set to show different categories.
The ads appear to be quite intrusive and most users who mentioned them on sites like Reddit do not appear to be pleased. That is understandable, considering that Amazon does not really mention ads at all on the product page on its website. You find mention of ads in the customer reviews though.
Furthermore, as the Verge is reporting, Alexa Plus, Amazon’s next-generation AI-powered voice assistant, is reportedly also showing full screen ads for its own services.
In closing, it appears that Amazon is pushing ads even more than Netflix or Disney do. It is quite problematic for customers who purchased a device that cost several hundred Dollars. They expected a device that would show them a photo slideshow, and only photos of that slideshow, and not an ad between every second or third photo.
Whether Amazon’s strategy regarding advertisement is going to hurt the company in the long run remains to be seen. After all, Netflix, Disney and Co. are also not bleeding users after they introduced ad-supported plans.
Now You: What is your take on this? Would you buy a device with ads? Feel free to leave a comment down below.