AT&T LTE-M Button: General-Purpose Amazon Dash For Businesses

Amazon has made some rather odd devices in the past, from the terrible flop that was the Fire Phone to the suspicious fashionista Echo Look. But one strange product that seems to have somewhat survived is the Dash button. A one-click device primarily designed to make it easy for Amazon users to order one type of product, the Dash concept seems to have had some fans over at AT&T. The carrier has just launched its own LTE-M Button which can do more than just order Tide pods.

In terms of technical features, the AT&T Button immediately has one thing over the Amazon Dash. It rides on the carrier's LTE-M network, a slightly newer and also cheaper version of 4G LTE designed for IoT devices. It's somewhere in between WiFi and LTE and doesn't require a WiFi connection.

But perhaps more importantly, the LTE-M buttons won't be as single-purpose as the Dash buttons are. Or rather, they won't be simply for ordering things, though that can definitely be done. Instead, these buttons can be programmed for different actions, from asking for user feedback ("like" button), checking in at locations, signaling a pickup, and more.

As useful as it may sound, these AT&T LTE-M Buttons aren't for consumer use. AT&T is marketing them to businesses who would then program these buttons however they see fit. It isn't competing with Amazon either, since it's utilizing Amazon's AWS anyway.