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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

AppKettle

Podcast: The CES Smart Kitchen Wrapup Show

It’s the CES 2017 smart kitchen wrapup! Mike and Ashley talk about what they saw at this year’s big consumer tech confab in Vegas.

Some of the topics they cover:

  • Smart fridges
  • Smart appliances
  • Whirlpool assisted cooking
  • Bosch’s kitchen robot Mykie
  • Panasonic’s smart kitchen
  • Anova’s new lineup of sous vide circulators
  • AppKettle
  • Alexa

Plus a couple non-CES news items such as Daimler’s investment in Starship and the
AB Inbev and Keurig Partnership.

This episode can be downloaded by clicking here.

Enjoy!

A Conversation With AppKettle’s Robert Hill At CES 2017

After five years of working on his connected kettle, Robert Hill ready to bring the product to the United States in 2017.

The former project manager and civil engineer founded his company, AppKettle, back in 2011 and launched a crowdfunding campaign in March of 2015. Despite a valiant effort with over 400 backers and almost £65 thousand in pledges, they cancelled the campaign and soon found external investment.

Fast forward to late last year and the company shipped their smart kettle in the UK and Europe and is setting its sites on delivering the kettle into the US market. The product, which will be priced around $169, will ship in the US by this summer according to Hill.

We caught up with Hill on the show floor at CES and he had this to say about the coming US launch: “(We’re) looking for the right partners. We’ve had a lot of interest, but it’s a very complex area and want to pick the right people. As you can see here (pointing to AppKettle), these are American proven standards. It’s not getting getting logistics and distribution and pricing model correct.”

You can listen to our interview from the show floor with Hill above.

AppKettle Now Shipping In UK, With US Model & Alexa Integration On Way

Before Teforia, there was AppKettle, a Wi-Fi connected tea kettle that allowed the user to see volume, temperature and time to boil from the app.

And while AppKettle never promised the ability to sense and tweak tea flavor notes at the molecular level like Teforia, it also wasn’t going to set you back a cool fifteen hundred bucks either.

The only problem? AppKettle never shipped, at least until now. The AppKettle first came to my attention on Kickstarter, but after looking like it would miss it’s funding target, the creators canceled the project and announced they’d received an external investment.

Now, a year and a half later, the AppKettle is finally shipping in the UK for £129, about equivalent to $160.

Those hoping to see the AppKettle under their Christmas tree had better live in the UK, the only market where the company is currently shipping. According to Robert Hill, AppKettle CEO, the product will be available in the US in early 2017. He also indicated that the company is also currently working on Alexa integration (who isn’t at this point?).

The AppKettle, which is only available through the AppKettle website at this point, has integrated Wi-Fi, made of brushed stainless steel, chrome and has a see-through glass water window. It can be controlled both via the app and through controls on the base.