I thought a forum is where people express “their opinions”. Not sure what she/he is complaining about
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Apple Music Now Playable on Amazon Echo Speakers via Alexa in United States
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It great to share opinions, especially wrongs ones that I can speak quietly to Siri about.
Class A and Class B customers. Same money, different service. No wait... more money, less service.
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My several iPods are enough for mixing up those figures
There’s always this weird obsession with elevating markets or industries which Apple isn’t playing in, or isn’t as invested.
People playing up the importance of the smart speaker don’t seem to have realised that products like the Apple Watch exist, which mean that features such as Siri are always on my wrist.
Amazon is investing so heavily in smart speakers because they have lost out on the smartphone revolution. They need a vector of entry into consumers’ homes, and it comes in the form of all these specialised smart gadgets such as wall clocks with Alexa backed in. Gadgets whose functionality have all been subsumed by the smartphone and smartwatch.
My counter-prediction is that Apple doesn’t need to have any presence in smart speakers because they already have the iPhone and the Apple Watch, but they will still do the HomePod for the sound quality alone.
Now if it only could trigger AirPlay to an Apple TV and maybe even accept AirPlay as an input source, this would be a perfect solution.
That's a really interesting observation about amazon missing the boat on phones and how it makes their Alexa devices so much more critical. I hadn't thought of it that way.
And yes, with siri on my watch and iPhone, I neither need nor want another device listening to me - especially if it's at home and out of my control when I'm not there. That, and the fact that speech-only interfaces can be laborious. Speech plus screen works best. Probably why Amazon is rolling out devices with both.
So that leaves HomePod as a really nice (but expensive) speaker. Is that a big target market for Apple? Hmm.
I'm one of those weirdos that LIKES sharing everything with every company. Gives me tons of personalization everywhere... and if I'm going to see ads on the internet (or otherwise) I would rather see ads for stuff I'm interested in.
Privacy is an old idea. In the modern world there really won't be any. You can fight it... or enjoy the benefits of its loss...
I just signed up for Apple Music an hour ago and I have no problem playing Apple Music using my multi-room Echo speaker group called Everywhere. The group contains a new Echo Plus located in the bedroom, and an Echo Dot located in the kitchen. I have Apple Music set as my default music service and I just say "Alexa play Apple Music Everywhere", or "Alexa play Beats 1 Everywhere", or "Alexa play songs by OneRepublic Everywhere." It was easy-peasy to set up and it works every time.
I was planning on buying a lot of Sonos One units, but the Alexa integration is half-baked and it will probably remain a sub-par quasi clone of the real Alexa. I plan on purchasing additional Echo Plus units this week for the house, and I will also be using them to make stereo pairs in a few rooms.
I have zero interest in HomePod, so I was happy to see Apple Music support on Echo devices. I'm currently backing up my iTunes library and I will be enabling iCloud Music Library which I understand also works now with Alexa via the Apple Music subscription.
Cheers.
ITG
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Seems like the only market. Apple is not going to make a cheap smart speaker that sells for next to no profit because they don’t profit from your data the same way amazon or google do.
Basically, my point is that the smart speaker market is one that Apple can afford to not take part in and still be fine. People really have to see what role these products play in Apple’s ecosystem, not just run around crying “the sky is falling” every time the competition does something that Apple isn’t.
Yes and no. The smart speaker market is the gateway to the home control market. If everyone moves to using Google/Alexa for home control (which is basically happening) - then that blocks Apple out of that market.
Further, it erodes the "ecosystem". Part of why I do everything with Apple is because everything works together so well. If I have to use Google/Alexa for all of my smart speaker and home control needs... then it breaks that chain and leaves me open to thinking about using other devices.
In particular, I've been so impressed with Google Home... that I have fancied the idea of getting an Android phone just to "try it out". Many things would be super convenient since I have Google Home all over my house... and having those interact with my phone better would be great.
That said: I'll never actually switch away from an iPhone... but if even a die-hard Apple fan like me can have a flight of fancy about moving to Google because of better integration... then I can definitely see a "normal" person doing so.
But: Tim Cook hasn't really understood the "ecosystem" idea the entire time he's been in charge...
Thing is - we already have access to Siri at all times, if the goal is to rely on a voice assistant for quick tasks like switching on lights. Simply by wearing an Apple Watch, Siri is instantly available everywhere in the home. And with 4g watches available for over a year now, you can also have Siri access outside of the house even when you don’t have your smartphone with you.
The same kind of access to Alexa would require a user to buy five, ten, or maybe even fifteen Echo speakers to place strategically throughout the home (another reason why Echo sales are becoming increasingly misleading - some consumers may be buying a handful of $50 speakers at one time), whereas I only need one Apple Watch.
If you ask me, smart speakers are here only because of a temporary lull in wearables adoption. I believe that as wearables (most notably - the Apple Watch) take off, the smart speaker market will start to dip accordingly. There’s just too much overlap between the two in terms of jobs to be done, even if you argue that there are still some differences between them (eg: I don’t wear my watch inside the house etc).
I've had an Apple Watch at launch... I still talk to my Google Homes more often than I do my Apple Watch for home automation things.
One of the major reasons is locality awareness. I have at least one Google Home in every room in my house. It _knows_ which room it is in. So I can say "Hey Google turn on the lights"... and it knows to only turn on the lights _in that room_ (even if they are a mixture of Lutron Caseta and Hue lights like I have in some rooms).
If I try that same thing with my Watch... Siri will happily reply: "Turning on 37 lights" as my whole house gets lit up...
Then, of course, there's the fact that not every person in the world has a Watch or has it connected to my house. My parents are coming into town for the holidays... there is a Google Home in the guest room. I have little printed out instructions for things they can do with it... including turning the lights on and off, playing music, asking for the forecast for the day, playing "sleep noise" and even changing the thermostat (if they are really uncomfortable - I would rather have them let me know so I can change the programming).
My parents even both have Apple Watches... but it's not worth the trouble to "share" my house with them while they're here - and even if I did it wouldn't do all the things that a Google Home does.
Wearables are not a complete replacement for static, always listening speakers that anyone can interact with at any time with absolutely no effort.
Good points all round, and thank you for sharing them.
It does appear that there might be a legitimate market for cheap smart speakers which serve as bottled voice assistants and for home automation. However, I simply don’t see Apple entering the low end of this market, because it runs so contrary to their business model.
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-reality-behind-voice-shopping-hype
What we do know is that very few people are using their smart speakers to do any sort of online shopping, so it’s dubious how successful this venture will be for amazon.
And I suspect that Apple might confident enough of the home penetration of their products that they decide this space is simply not worth competing in.
You have the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod, all scattered around your house, each capable of doing what this hodge-podge of smart gadgets by amazon is capable of achieving.
Geofencing might be something Apple addresses eventually. We will have to see.
Good points all round, and thank you for sharing them.
It does appear that there might be a legitimate market for cheap smart speakers which serve as bottled voice assistants and for home automation. However, I simply don’t see Apple entering the low end of this market, because it runs so contrary to their business model.
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-reality-behind-voice-shopping-hype
What we do know is that very few people are using their smart speakers to do any sort of online shopping, so it’s dubious how successful this venture will be for amazon.
And I suspect that Apple might confident enough of the home penetration of their products that they decide this space is simply not worth competing in.
You have the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and HomePod, all scattered around your house, each capable of doing what this hodge-podge of smart gadgets by amazon is capable of achieving.
Geofencing might be something Apple addresses eventually. We will have to see.
The whole "voice shopping" thing is one reason why I think Google Home is a better choice over Echo. Google does more stuff that's useful for me with my voice. For instances I can call up my Google Calendar... I can even do things like say "Hey Google, when is my flight next week?" and because it has access to my Gmail it can respond intelligently.
All-in-all... integration with Google is much more convenient than integration with Amazon.
The only thing you get with Amazon is integration with Amazon Prime Video... so if controlling what you watch on TV with your voice is important to you... then maybe an Echo makes sense.
Incorrect, partially. Siri is _very_ much technology embedded, and an evolving entity. Siri has been branded by Apple, but its primary service is an artificial intelligence based off Apple servers, which if you look at Siri over the years, it’s been incremental improvements with dictation and deciphering advancements. Now, that John Giannandrea (Prevuosily was with Google) is in charge of revamping Siri’s artificial intelligence, those technological changes are coming even more so, because Siri is limited outside it’s scope, aside from it’s core functionality with iOS.
Keep in mind, Siri is server based for producing results outside iOS controls and relies on Apple’s servers, which can be intuitive at times and problematic in the same respect.
Results and opinions vary. Siri is still the single most used voice assistant in the world. So long as you know Siri's (and same goes for every other AI voice) limitations, it works well.
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A lot can happen in a decade and even a year.. Now that Sonos is publicly traded, they're not just fighting the tech battle, they're fighting the PR battle against the best PR company in the world, Apple.