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Canalys Predicts 2018 Will Be 'Defining Year' for Smart Speaker Growth
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That's a fairly generalized statement. I think it depends how you're using your smart speaker to really appreciate it for in-home controls, music, weather, etc. And not to mention, I think it depends on the demographic, which seemingly the geriatric crowd also appreciates being it's hands-free for mobility reasons.
Not until they put iMessage on Android!
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If you have NO IDEA what to do with it, none of us are going to help you out.
Enjoying the original Google Home.......I think smart speakers will be the way to go. Hint: have a google music subscription and Youtube Red subscription and ask it questions you can't answer when you think of them. That's how you use one. Furthermore, get some home accessories that can be voice activated with google home such as lights, plug-ins etc.......
Apple is going to have to come up with a 'puck', a la Google Mini or Echo Dot. A big speaker as your only choice isn't going to cut it. Love, love LOVE the Echo Spot.
Apple's HomePod isn't about Siri, but rather the future of home audio
"HomePod isn't a "smart mic" seeking to force Siri into more places to intercept users' attention. Despite cloying narratives of how Amazon is dominating the "smart speaker" market it created out of necessity after Fire Phone imploded in a cloud of smoke, Apple has always had a commanding lead in the number of people using its Siri voice assistant worldwide.
There are a few million Alexa speakers (mostly all in the U.S.) but a billion devices that run Siri—and they're not confined to a room but rather in everyone's pockets and on millions of wrists (in addition to CarPlay vehicles, Apple TV and on Macs) all ready for immediate use.
For Apple, Siri is a convenience feature, not an attempt to break into a market it's been walled out of. Siri is already everywhere. Apple isn't trying to force people to use it, and it's not blocking Amazon or Google (or Microsoft) from putting their own smart voice-enabled services on the iOS App Store.
The narrative that Apple is woefully behind Alexa or Assistant has things backward. Apple doesn't make any money off people using Siri. If voice services were a truly compelling feature in smartphone purchases, people would have bought Fire Phone and Pixel. That did not happen. Describing Apple as "behind in voice services" is a distraction away from the much larger failure of everyone else's voice service to establish a valuable smartphone platform."
Apple will have to definitely have a $99 dollar option for one of their smart speakers to sell really well in the current market. That price tag of $349 for a homepod is crazy especially with something as dumb as Siri. At least the Google Home Max looks like its worth the investment.
Here we go again.... another 3D TV roll out.
I have a good stereo thats linked into my music library. The Stereo is 15 years old.
I have an iPhone, so Siri is with me where ever I go.
Exactly what does this smart speaker do for me so that I would shell out hundreds of dollars for ?
This is exactly the same hoopla that surrounded 3D TV, now a few years down the track they are basically extinct, there is no 3D programming, people who have them simply paid a LOT more money for a plain old TV. 4K/8K TVs are the latest iteration of "you need products" with zero benefits, and smart speakers are there with them.
100% of the benefit is for Amazon and Google (less so for Apple) because they get to listen in on everything, analyse it and use it to make money from targeted adverts.
My music is mine, there is no analytics collected, there is no listening in, there are no adverts, it works when the internet is down, etc etc etc.
So, no, I am not going to buy into a product thats likely to be abandoned within a few years, and once abandoned it will simply stop working shortly afterwards.
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No, because that is not enabled on my iPhone..... deliberately.
I have a good stereo thats linked into my music library. The Stereo is 15 years old.
I have an iPhone, so Siri is with me where ever I go.
Exactly what does this smart speaker do for me so that I would shell out hundreds of dollars for ?
This is exactly the same hoopla that surrounded 3D TV, now a few years down the track they are basically extinct, there is no 3D programming, people who have them simply paid a LOT more money for a plain old TV. 4K/8K TVs are the latest iteration of "you need products" with zero benefits, and smart speakers are there with them.
100% of the benefit is for Amazon and Google (less so for Apple) because they get to listen in on everything, analyse it and use it to make money from targeted adverts.
My music is mine, there is no analytics collected, there is no listening in, there are no adverts, it works when the internet is down, etc etc etc.
So, no, I am not going to buy into a product thats likely to be abandoned within a few years, and once abandoned it will simply stop working shortly afterwards.
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No, because that is not enabled on my iPhone..... deliberately.
So whats this Future of Music Apple are trying to innovate?
This blurb sounds like marketing speak from Apple. Apple know they can't compete with SIRI against Google or Amazon, so its being spun into some sort of musical innovation.
On Apple's product page, there's a description of Siri's role - ask questions, tasks, music control, smart home control etc. Sounds exactly what other smart speakers do.
This blurb sounds like marketing speak from Apple. Apple know they can't compete with SIRI against Google or Amazon, so its being spun into some sort of musical innovation.
On Apple's product page, there's a description of Siri's role - ask questions, tasks, music control, smart home control etc. Sounds exactly what other smart speakers do.
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If Siri doesn’t radically improve, HomePod will have a negative effect on Apple’s following. I’m sure it looks and sounds great, but users shelling out $200 extra dollars for a device with far less capability than the competition will return it, go buy a Google Home or Alexa device and never return.
This is the first real threat I see to Apple in quite some time. I’m not optimistic. I think this is a blind spot for them.
This is the first real threat I see to Apple in quite some time. I’m not optimistic. I think this is a blind spot for them.
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Here's what I use mine for almost every day.
Alexa, set an alarm for 7 Am.
Alexa, set a timer for 3 minutes (for cooking).
Alexa, add "Jane's Basketball Game" at 3:30 on January 12th to my Calendar (default calendar is family shared which then show up on all out phones)
Alexa, add milk to my shopping list. (while I have the refrigerator door open)
Alexa, play Rock 100.5 (automatically plays the station from iheart radio)
Alexa, connect to my iphone. (Connects to Bluetooth without me ever having to touch bluetooth controls on my phone and I just use it as a speaker.)
Alexa, turn of the Christmas lights.
Alexa, what is the weather.
Alexa, what is the news.
Alexa, drop in on the bedroom. (as in intercom between devices to tell my daughter to get up for school.)
Alexa, play Autumn Jazz on everywhere. (Plays the same synced music all throughout my house)
Alexa, order dog food. (Automatically reorders last dog food I ordered when I confirm)
Alexa, how old is Brad Pitt.
Alexa, set the temperature upstairs to 72 degrees.
Alexa, lock the front door.
And the Echo show does even more because it prompts me with interesting headlines and stories throughout the day.
Good to know! I was never very much into voice assistants (I never use Siri), so this is good info.
Don't hold your breath, AppleTV doesn't even cache movies! I have a 64GB device, why doesn't it hold the last 5 movies or shows I watched (or however many until it is out of memory) then flush it? Then if you had bad internet, you could still actually watch a 4k movie. Right now, if you don't have at least 25MB down, you can even watch a 4K movie. If you internet goes out during a movie (even if there was plenty of time to have downloaded the whole movie) enjoy not watching. Hell, even if it flickers to slowdown, expect a pause and to see the spinning wheel. And talk about using up unneeded bandwidth...
It's a bit of a sickness really ;-)
But seriously, almost every day I ask it some stupid bit of trivia that we are discussing around dinner. Of course, google home is way better than Alexa at most normal search related questions
My son and I did lots of experiments to see which one could do more and (except for shopping) google home is actually way better at understanding and answering.
Apple's offering at $350 won't make much of a dent in this market....the vast majority of sales are below $100. This determines the ecosystem people have setup in their house's that they talk to all the time - worth selling at cost to get in place. Apple has missed the boat on this.
Hmm still don't see the point of these. My phone, watch, computer... all have Siri yet it's not really useful (yet) aside from setting countdown timers. I struggle to see the use of a speaker with the same functionality with today's AI assistants, and I'm not prepared to fund this new tech in such an early stage... as it could go either way.
Apple is sooo late to the game I don't know if they will ever catch up. I have an Echo dot AND a Google mini and use them both daily. I added a Google mini during Black Friday when the price was $29 with a $10 GC at Target. I ran some tests and Google assistant is definitely the smartest AI of all 3. Siri sucks so bad on my iPad or iPhone.
In fact, I even asked Google assistant when the Apple Homepod was coming out and it spoke to me with some info, price and estimate release date (before they delayed it). Alexa she said sorry can't help, and Siri was like here's web results (since it's a phone, maybe the Homepod will be different/smarter).
For those who don't know how useful a smart speaker is for it's not requiring a smartphone to be nearby. Also by adding smart switches like a Wemo I can use my voice to turn on lights, turn on the air purifier or fan, etc.
I can banish the smartphone from my bedroom. The only tech product I have in there is the Google mini to use as an alarm (I do like the Echo dot alarm where you can use celebrity voices - waking up to Missy Elliot was dope, but I moved the Echo dot to the living room where I use a 3.5mm audio line to a Sonos 5) and if I wake up in the middle of the night I just ask Google what time it is. Another feature I love with a smart speaker is being to fall asleep to music or relaxing sounds like the sound of rain.
Something I use daily is get news updates while getting dressed. Alexa can also be added with all these skills like playing fun trivia games or meditation programs.
Having a Google mini and/or an Echo dot allows you to rely less on your smartphone or laptop and get information more quickly through audio and at a low price.
I just don't see myself spending 350 for a Homepod no matter how awesome it sounds (already got a Sonos 5 for audio and actually I prefer listening to headphones anyway).
In fact, I even asked Google assistant when the Apple Homepod was coming out and it spoke to me with some info, price and estimate release date (before they delayed it). Alexa she said sorry can't help, and Siri was like here's web results (since it's a phone, maybe the Homepod will be different/smarter).
For those who don't know how useful a smart speaker is for it's not requiring a smartphone to be nearby. Also by adding smart switches like a Wemo I can use my voice to turn on lights, turn on the air purifier or fan, etc.
I can banish the smartphone from my bedroom. The only tech product I have in there is the Google mini to use as an alarm (I do like the Echo dot alarm where you can use celebrity voices - waking up to Missy Elliot was dope, but I moved the Echo dot to the living room where I use a 3.5mm audio line to a Sonos 5) and if I wake up in the middle of the night I just ask Google what time it is. Another feature I love with a smart speaker is being to fall asleep to music or relaxing sounds like the sound of rain.
Something I use daily is get news updates while getting dressed. Alexa can also be added with all these skills like playing fun trivia games or meditation programs.
Having a Google mini and/or an Echo dot allows you to rely less on your smartphone or laptop and get information more quickly through audio and at a low price.
I just don't see myself spending 350 for a Homepod no matter how awesome it sounds (already got a Sonos 5 for audio and actually I prefer listening to headphones anyway).
I’m curious as to how good HomePod really sounds as that’s the only reason I’d buy one. Siri’s already on my Watch. But to get stereo you need 2 and that’s a $700 proposition. A pair of “dumb” studio monitors at that price would blow away HomePod. I’m also skeptical based on the reports of reviewers who got to hear them since many reviewers liked the sound “quality” of AirPod and I find them to be mediocre at best. I don’t hate listening to my music through them but I don’t enjoy listening to my music through them either. I listened to a podcast with them a week ago and it had been a few months since I used them last. (Thankfully the case was still half charged and pods fully charged after being in my pocket for several months without use.)
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Alexa stores all your recordings. Go to the Alexa website and everything you or your family and friends said will be there for you to play back.
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Eventually sales will reach saturation point. (S curve) It’s also pretty easy to double sales when you’re not selling many to begin with.