Think you know a lot
about smart speakers?
If you're curious
about smart speakers, Google's Home Mini is the best introductory option out there for dipping your toe into the voice - assistant world.
A new study
about smart speakers, which had its world release at yesterday's RAIN Podcast Business Summit, revealed that the voice - activated devices (e.g. Amazon Echo / Dot and Google Home) encourage audio listening, music service subscription, and have become extremely valued additions to their owners» lifestyles in sometimes surprising ways.
Another source of concern
about smart speakers and digital assistants are hidden vulnerabilities within them; as these devices are intended to be connected up to everything from your lights to your doors, users are concerned that hackers could cause physical damage or hack the devices for other nefarious purposes such as committing burglaries.
One of the many great things
about smart speakers and virtual assistants is their ability to only respond to certain wake words, which allows the user to feel as if there's really a sentient being inside the house that listens to commands at all times.
Last year may have been
about smart speakers in the home, but 2018 is definitely about getting voice assistants into other spaces and devices.
-- One very important thing
about smart speakers, particularly the Echo line, is that they're cutting - edge technology (voice control and intelligent assistants) in devices that right from the start have been marketed at a mainstream audience.
You've no doubt heard the buzz
about smart speakers.
Perhaps the best thing
about these smart speakers is that it's the new hot thing in the tech market.
He also scotched one commonly - held view
about smart speakers: that the most common query from their owners is the super-general «play me music».
When we talk
about smart speakers now, the attention is inevitably drawn to Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod, although if you read our recent Smart Speakers Music Ally report, you'll also be aware of the likes of Whyd,...
When we talk
about smart speakers now, the attention is inevitably drawn to Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod, although if you read our recent Smart Speakers Music Ally report, you'll also be aware of the likes of Whyd, Prizm, Harmon Kardon's Invoke, and Line's plans for a series of devices.
It's not just
about smart speakers though.
The low price points of Dot and Mini have also changed consumer perceptions
about smart speakers and enticed more than 40 % of households to place them in multiple rooms.
Voicebot, RAIN Agency and PullString identified 17 consumer use cases and asked over 1,000 consumers
about their smart speaker experience.
Voicebot, RAIN Agency and PullString identified 17 consumer use cases and asked over 1,000 consumers
about their smart speaker experience.
And, to bring it back around, if you're looking to see what all the fuss
about the smart speaker movement is about, the new - model Amazon Echo is a great way to do it.
HomePod is the brand new addition to the Apple ecosystem, and therefore, there may be a thousand questions
about this smart speaker.
In the first reviews for Apple's new HomePod speaker, everyone totally raves
about the smart speaker's pristine sound quality.
However, all of these incidents are
about a smart speaker's voice assistant responding to a spoken phrase and then responding to the request.
You can learn more
about the smart speaker market share breakdown along with data on more than twenty other related topics in the Voicebot Smart Speaker Consumer Adoption report here.
My 20 - minute keynote at the Smart Voice Summit, Paris in February 2018 (organized by Smartly.ai) reviews what the data say
about smart speaker and voice assistant adoption, why its happening now and how brands are reacting.
Intelligence company NuVoodoo Media Services shared information
about smart speaker ownership from its Ratings Prospects Study.
That said, there have been multiple reports on Reddit and at least one thread on the Google Home Help Forum have been talking
about the smart speaker crashing when it plays any more than a few seconds of music at maximum volume.
Unfortunately, the WSJ's report didn't include details
about the smart speaker's specifications, nor did it provide a timeframe for when consumers can expect it to be released.
That's amazing if accurate, although before anyone gets too excited about the HomePod's potential for overtaking the iPhone in terms of Apple's main revenue earner, it's worth considering that there's plenty we still don't know
about smart speaker buying habits.
The 29 - page report is filled with juicy tidbits
about smart speaker ownership, which is interesting because both Google and Amazon, the two major players in the smart speaker game, are very secretive about their sales numbers.
Apple has since acknowledged the issue and updated its support page for the HomePod with additional details
about the smart speaker and how its silicone base interacts with certain surfaces.
Not exact matches
Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data
about the direction the
smart speaker market could take from here.
Facebook is mulling a plan to sell its upcoming
smart speakers internationally before launching them in the U.S., as American users and politicians have increased their focus on Facebook and user privacy, according to two people who have had discussions with the company
about the devices.
Google's latest home assistant — the Home Mini — is a $ 49
smart speaker that is
about the size of a donut.
Wright estimated that
about 35 million
smart speakers had been installed worldwide as of a couple of weeks ago — not including US Christmas sales.
At IO, Google announced a slick new
smart speaker and a jacket that controls your phone, but didn't make a peep
about its Glass efforts, which now fall under a division called Project Aura.
But it would help Apple rope in the more hesitant customers on the fence
about HomePod — and help Apple better compete in the already highly competitive world of
smart speakers.
Amazon has the Echo Dot, a $ 50
smart speaker that's
about the size and shape of a hockey puck.
More from Recode: Why Google's newest AI team is setting up in Canada Get ready, the
smart speaker market pioneered by Amazon's Echo is
about to get crowded Hulu is adding HBO just in time for «Game of Thrones»
«Apple is in a bit of trouble,» said Adam Wright, senior research analyst at IDC, who estimated that
about 35 million
smart speakers had been installed worldwide as of a couple of weeks ago — not including U.S. Christmas sales.
Privacy advocates are also concerned
about the tens of millions of Amazon Echo
smart speakers and other voice - controlled devices that have put microphones in people's homes.
International business
speaker Michael Kerr shares some research
about how you can work
smarter not harder, a fun at work tip to help employees interact at work, a deep thought of the week, and a preview of some of the fun May theme days headed your way.
For example, the social network canceled the announcement of a Facebook
smart home
speaker to challenge Amazon's Echo and Google's Home amid worries that the device would raise more questions
about the amount of data the company collects.
Sinister ambitions of governments and multinational corporations aside, you should also worry
about the threat of bugs and hackers going after
smart speakers.
Amazon currently controls
about 70 percent of the
smart speaker market.
If you would like to reach more
about consumer use cases on
smart speakers, the entire report can be downloaded here.
You can do the same math in HomePod multiples, but it may be that Amazon is more focused on matching Google
smart speaker pricing than concerned
about Apple.
In this Marketing Over Coffee: Learn
about The New FB Feed, Screened
Smart Speakers, Containers and more!
We haven't heard much
about the rumored Bixby
smart speaker since this summer.
That translates to
about 0.33 times per day or
about eight times lower in frequency than voice assistant usage on
smart speakers.
In its first - quarter fiscal 2018, the company grew sales in its «broad market» segment — which includes hardware for
smart speakers, connected vehicles, and smartwatches — and that business now makes up
about 25 % of the company's top line.
There has been a lot of discussion
about shopping using voice assistants through
smart speakers, but fewer data points related to mobile have been reported.
Edison Research in its semi-annual
Smart Audio Report sponsored by National Public Media asked consumers about where they are placing smart speakers twice in the past
Smart Audio Report sponsored by National Public Media asked consumers
about where they are placing
smart speakers twice in the past
smart speakers twice in the past year.