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Tuesday, April 11, 2017

More Assistant Competitors to Alexa

Rumors out about assistant oriented competitors to Amazon Echo.  The latest being a collaboration between Harman-Kardon and Microsoft.  In Neowin: " .. .Harman Kardon is working on a Cortana-powered speaker for a 2017 release ... "    By Rich Woods @TheRichWoods  ...

More previously in Neowin on the idea.  The idea makes sense, use the speaker/entertainment idea to drive adoption, then use Cortana as a way to lead the idea to an assistant or to a smart home hub.

Microsoft has already been talking about a home hub announcement this year.   This may be the year to see this competition expand.   In another piece, we see that Sonos says it will integrate Alexa voice smarts into its new offerings.   The question remains, beyond voice control, what kind of actual intelligence will be seen in these offerings?   Will it be enough to sell the devices beyond convenient entertainment?

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