Along with all of the excellent news from Amazon this evening regarding their new Kindle Fire HDX lineup is something called Mayday. You might be wondering what exactly that is, and we’ll tell you. Mayday! Mayday! We have a problem! Amazon will be offering 365/24/7 (all day every day) live video remote tech support on their new Kindle Fire HDX tablets. This is free for the new tablet owners, and is rather interesting.
Essentially what Amazon is doing is using their wide array of resources and backing to offer something no other tablet manufacturer does, or can. That being live 24/7 video tech support. A quick swipe down from the new quick settings panel you’ll find a Mayday button. This will be something you tap when you’re in need of customer support from Amazon. Whether it’s about the tablet, or anything else.
Appearing on your 7 or 8.9-inch display will be a little video popup. Which is live tech support. The support rep can remotely control the video feed too, and move it around so you can access areas they may need to access in order to troubleshoot a problem. Oh, and in case you’re wondering this is a one way video. They can’t see you for privacy (and bandwidth) reasons, but you can see and hear them. Say goodbye to 1-800 numbers and that obnoxious elevator music the others offer while you’re on hold. Take a peek at our demo below.
When we showed this to beta testers, people’s jaws hit the table, because they were so surprised that they’re getting a live tech support person that appears on their device. Our goal is to elevate that whole tech support experience.” –Jeff Bezos
The Amazon Mayday tech support rep can position the video feed, draw on the screen with Amazon-orange colored arrows to direct users that are lost or struggling, and more. Basically from troubleshooting, to helping a new customer that just opened their new tablet with live instructions on how to send an email, or buy and download a book to read. This is impressive stuff, and older folks or technology-challenged people like my parents will love this.
We’re ready to hire more people if we need to – in the 1,000s – We’ll be ready for Christmas morning, which is always a very big tech support day for us” –Jeff Bezos
Privacy is important here, so only you see them. The rep can’t see you, even though there’s a front facing camera that would support it. Also, passwords being entered and such isn’t a problem either, and support reps will pause or stop the screen sharing function. So far this sounds extremely interesting and could really be a decision people weigh when deciding on their next tablet.
Stay tuned for more details, and don’t forget to check out the rest of our coverage and hands-on from the timeline below.
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