Digital Assistants, Smart Home Devices Top Amazon Holiday Sales List

Amazon.com says smart home devices, wearable computers and its own Echo and Echo Dot digital assistants were hot sellers during the holiday season. Take a look at the entire list of best sellers.

Amazon’s Echo Dot was one of Amazon’s top sellers across all categories this holiday season. The device is a hands-free, voice-controlled product that lets users interact with Amazon’s virtual personal assistant Alexa. The Echo Dot is similar to the Echo with its voice-command support, but needs a separate speaker that it can connect to via Bluetooth to deliver its full functionality. It costs $50.

Samsung’s Wireless Charging Pad works with devices that use the Qi standard for wireless charging and boost a battery in no time. While it works with Samsung devices, the wireless charging pad can also work on third-party products. It’s available for $23.

The Garmin Vivoactive HR is a $200 wearable that delivers around-the-clock heart rate monitoring and a battery life that can last up to eight days. In addition, the device monitors activity and creates goals based on those outlined by national health organizations. And since this is a Garmin product, it comes with a built-in GPS.

Another wildly popular device, the Amazon Echo was a top seller on Amazon’s digital store shelves. In fact, as of this writing, it’s still out of stock and won’t be available for another month. The device is a smart home hub that supports the voice control users find in Amazon Echo Dot, but has its own built-in speaker. The Amazon Echo is available for $180.

Garmin made a second showing in Amazon’s list of popular wearables with its Vivofit. The device, called a fitness band by Garmin, can be worn all day long and continually analyzes user activity. It also can monitor sleep and lets users see how well they’re doing at achieving their fitness goals. Best of all, it delivers more than a year of battery life on a single charge. It’s on sale for $40.

Amazon might not be the biggest tablet maker in the world, but it’s among the most popular. In fact, the company’s Fire Tablet was the best-selling slate on the e-retail site during the holiday season, topping even Apple’s iPad. The Fire Tablet comes with a 7-inch display, WiFi connectivity, and 8GB of onboard storage. But its most appealing feature is its $50 price tag, making it one of the cheaper options on the market. It runs on Android and works with all Amazon apps.

The $30 TP-Link Smart Plug is a handy tool that can turn regular home electronics and appliances into smartphone-controlled devices. The Smart Plug is inserted into an electric outlet and connects to WiFi networks. Users can then control the plug from their smartphones and turn products on and off at will. Smart Plug also supports scheduling and can be controlled with voice commands through Amazon’s Alexa.

The SanDisk Ultra 32GB microSDHC card was a popular data storage accessory this year. The card, which goes for just $12.95, also comes in other capacities depending on users’ data storage needs. It features transfer speeds of up to 80MB per second and is waterproof, shockproof, and even X-ray proof. Since it can be plugged into some of the most popular smartphones, it’s a highly desirable mobile device accessory.

Amazon’s $40 Fire TV Stick is a nice addition to any television that doesn’t come with standard “smart” features like the ability to stream programming. The Fire TV Stick plugs into a television’s HDMI port and connects to the network via WiFi. From there, it provides access to more than 7,000 apps, games, and Alexa skills.

The Samsung SmartThings Hub is another popular item on Amazon this year. The device acts as the brains for a broader smart home equipped with all kinds of smart devices, including lights, speakers, thermostats, and more. So it’s perhaps no surprise it was popular in 2016 when consumer interest in smart home technology really took off. It costs $75.