On the battlefield of smart speakers, can Amazon escape the coffers of technology giants?

In a product in the same field, many giants gather at the same time and start to compete positively. It is rare.

Source | 歪思妙想(ID: neihangaoxiao)

Text | 歪道

The most recent focus on the eyes of domestic giants is still in the sharing economy. From sharing bicycles to sharing charging treasures now, the backing of capital is the key to the success of these startups. Looking at the international market, after Amazon and Google, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung, the leading technology giants in their respective fields, have turned their attention to smart speakers.

It is worth mentioning that in a product in the same field, it is rare for many giants to assemble at the same time and start to compete face to face. After all, this was the case only before in the extremely vast field of artificial intelligence or driverlessness.

However, the market for smart speakers is still somewhat special. Compared with domestic companies, which are basically at the same starting point for smart hardware, Amazon has occupied a dominant position in this market. Even if Google has technology and technology, it must have a strong company. How much impact on it, then, under such circumstances, these giants are still influential, what does this mean?

Google has failed, can Microsoft, Apple and Samsung succeed?

According to a report released by market consultancy eMarketer, about 70.6% of US voice smart audio users use Amazon products, Google only accounts for 23.8%, and other companies share 5.6% of the market, including Lenovo, LG, Harman-Card. Don, MAT tel.

In theory, the field of information technology has long followed the law of 70-20-10, and the current market share of smart speakers is also in line with this distribution. Will this make Apple and other latecomers face more competitive pressures? In particular, Google released Goole Home for Echo last year. Its speech recognition technology can be said to be comparable to Amazon, but it still has no hindrance to the latter's smart speaker sales. What's more, Amazon's voice assistant Alexa has access to up to 7,000 smart hardware devices. On the contrary, Google can use the convenience of Android to make its voice assistants access more smartphone manufacturers, but Huawei's US version of Mate 9 The announcement of the embedded Alexa move once again proves that this convenience does not necessarily guarantee that they will choose Google.

Google’s defeat may mean that even such a massive tech giant will not necessarily cause a fatal blow to Amazon. In particular, the reason behind this is not only the gap between time and time, but also the advantages of technology, business model and user habits.

The technical aspects of smart speakers can be described in two levels. The first is to simply compete with the voice assistant's performance. According to the relevant tests, it can be seen that this problem has been difficult to determine. It can only be said that each has its own merits. For example, Google Assistant has a deep understanding of depth and the integration of Apple SIRI and smartphone. Higher, and the Amazon voice ecosystem is the most open, Microsoft may be a little weaker, and there is no substantial gap. In other words, latecomers such as Apple can't find an advantage from the voice assistant.

Second, Amazon has accumulated unique technology in the integration of voice assistants into speaker devices. For example, the key seven microphone arrays make far-field recognition far better than Google, while Apple is better at using near-field interactions on mobile phones. Even if this technology breaks through, Amazon's approach to cost pricing will make other companies Lack of price advantage makes it difficult to compete with Amazon, which already dominates the market. In addition, in the reaction time of smart speakers, Amazon's performance within 1.5 seconds also formed a technical barrier.

If the technical level can always be crossed by these technology giants, or if it is a technology upgrade that is completely ahead of the industry, then Amazon's business model built around smart speakers is not available to other companies, especially as the world's largest online retail. The channel advantages brought by the business have a natural integration with the hardware products. On the one hand, the key role of channels in the sales of consumer electronics is increasingly being verified. On the other hand, Amazon has always been good at combining products and services, which are displayed on smart speakers, and its applications can directly access Amazon's related services, such as shopping. , Kindle and Amazon MU sic, and these consumption can directly bring real profits to Amazon. Therefore, Amazon's research and development of smart speakers is the dual success of hardware and services, which is difficult for companies such as Google and Apple.

Of course, the competitive pressure of such a powerful technology giant surrounding Amazon can't be ignored, especially Apple, a company that uses hardware to shape business myths. Brand influence alone may attract the attention of many consumers, and Apple's The smart home platform started construction in 2014, and with this direct hardware device, it can bring a broader imagination to the market. Recently, Apple’s senior vice president Phil Road Schiller said in an interview with the media that “there is nothing to say”, and the full of malicious smuggling can be said to be direct to the Amazon, while Amazon has taken the lead before Apple’s actual action. The screen version of Echo, in short, this offensive and defensive war will certainly be more exciting in the future.

Amazon launched Echo touch screen version, is it compromise or innovation ?

Recently, Amazon officially announced the launch of the Echo Showcase, a new version of the Echo smart speaker. The Echo Show will be equipped with a 7-inch display to show the answer to the user's voice question. Support Internet phone function.

The benefits of this move are obvious, but they touch on one of the most fundamental problems. Touch screen and speech recognition are intrinsically conflicting in human-computer interaction. The biggest selling point of Amazon smart speakers is to abandon the sense of touch and use simple communication like language. The way to provide related services, but now to regain the screen, isn't it a kind of back? Will the touch screen impact the actual value of the voice on the speaker?

Furthermore, we can find that the voice assistant embeds some hardware devices with screen as the entrance. Almost none of them can stand out completely with this application and become a phenomena-level product. In addition to Amazon, a smart speaker that features voice interaction alone, so this The proven way may be the correct posture of the voice assistant landing. Once Amazon joins the touch screen mode, will it destroy the rationality foundation?

But first of all, from a competitive perspective, this move is reasonable and effective. At the Build 2017 Developer Conference, Microsoft just released Harman Kardon Invoke, a Hartana smart speaker made by Harman-Carlton. Its biggest feature is that you can make and receive calls through Microsoft's instant messaging software Skype, while Amazon Smart The voice call has not been implemented before the speaker. Instant messaging is a hard demand for most users of electronic products, and Microsoft's performance is clearly the pain point of Echo. In order to cope with this sudden threat, the touch screen version has become a need.

In addition, Apple related personnel have repeatedly said that "no screen is not suitable in many cases", when you want to compare the price and performance parameters of the two products, or want to look at the temperature trend of the weather forecast for the next week, The screen is also the most convenient way to present it. Regardless of the actual needs, according to Apple's attitude, its products may also join the screen to achieve more applications, which will also form a product feature that is different from Amazon Echo, so it is necessary to deal with this future. A tough competitor will pre-empt the product before it is released, at least to ensure that Apple will not be allowed to take the lead.

Of course, in fact, Amazon's launch of the touch screen version is not all about dealing with competitive pressure, but also from the product itself. On the one hand, it improves the usage rate of some applications of the speaker and improves the user experience. According to relevant surveys, users' use of Amazon Echo is mainly focused on music, manipulation, news and other applications. In fact, it has 10,000 functions, and it can be used less than 3/1. The reason is naturally the lack of touch screen assistance, resulting in inconvenient operation, which is Apple's criticism, and now many people suspect that Apple's declaration may be a confusing, disrupting the pace of Amazon, causing it to lose in the field of smart speakers Core competitiveness.

Amazon's earliest research and development and deep-growing smart speaker market, its accumulated data makes its analysis of users more accurate than Apple, on this basis to make such a decision, this is obviously not Apple's words can be left and right. And the touch screen version is just a product launched by Amazon. More attempts to market do not mean giving up the core features of speech recognition.

Second, the touch screen version and Echo Look, which was just launched last month, are actually market segments around pure speech speakers. Through the improvement of product layout, it will enhance Amazon's strength in this field, and this is based on The main business has not changed. All in all, the touch screen version is Amazon's choice under competitive pressure and product concerns, and it is also a completely autonomous decision.

In addition, the question of whether the touch screen will weaken the practical value of the voice is hard to say now, but the screen is only positioned to assist, not the case of two choices. For many functions that can be realized simply by voice, it is also basic. The screen will not be used again, which can keep the voice assistant useful.

The meaning of the drunkard surrounded by giants

Focusing on the same period of time, many giants have announced their entry into the field of smart speakers. This is intriguing in itself. Of course, they value not only the interests of this intelligent hardware, but also the future business prospects such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things. From this point of view, whether you can suppress Amazon in the market of smart speakers, or get huge revenues, can only be regarded as the icing on the cake, not the ultimate goal. In other words, Amazon's advantages in voice assistants, smart homes, etc., gained from the success of smart speakers, so that other giants have seen long-term benefits.

As far as speech recognition is concerned, through the proof of smart speakers, Amazon's voice assistant has achieved a dramatic increase in the number of applications, and now the influx of giants is also partly due to the search for more commercial value for their own voice assistants. Experiments with other hardware devices seem to be successful. In addition, speech recognition or voice interaction is one of the most widely used artificial intelligences currently available. For example, smart homes, in-vehicle systems and other fields with great commercial potential require voice to realize human-computer interaction. The upgrade of field recognition to far field identification is also a trend.

In the long run, in the future, perhaps all hardware devices that come into contact can use voice as the entrance. Even if there is no unified control center in the home, it can be directly directed to the refrigerator or air conditioner. This may not be possible, especially Compared to the floating screens that often appear in sci-fi movies, even if it looks cool, it essentially stays at the level of screen interaction, and voice control is several levels higher than it. Especially once a product that can replace a smartphone is created from voice interaction, this is definitely a subversive change.

In addition, the giant's goal is to control the core of smart home. The previous home appliance connection through mobile APP, in fact, the development space is much smaller than the new control center, on the other hand, because the experience is not too big. Upgrade without being optimistic. Now that the technology giants have developed smart speakers one after another, does it mean that it is likely to become the core of smart homes?

This is not necessarily the case. First, there are still many technical problems due to speech recognition or interaction. The connection between speakers and other home appliances is limited to the initial stage. It is still unclear whether it is a convenient way to reshape the new control center. Second, the speaker is not just needed for many families. The existence of traditional home appliances such as TVs and refrigerators is even stronger. Is it necessary to buy such a non-essential item in order to realize the wisdom of life, net worth, and information? In contrast, it is not more convenient to use traditional home appliances as the control center. I have to say that smart home is still only a concept so far, there are many possibilities, of course, can not rule out the speaker as the core imagination. In short, the future is difficult to determine, only the advance layout can win thousands of miles.

Any giant company is basically betting on future trends, or catching up with the glory and achievements of the current wave, so they have an extremely sensitive sense of the future. Nowadays, in the market of smart speakers, high-profile influx, tit-for-tat, Perhaps it is the beginning of a new era.

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