You might feel the same way you did with you first got to use a smartphone when you use the new Amazon Echo. Amazon is paving the way for voice controlled tech in our lives with this new gadget. It hasn’t been around that long yet, but it’s already making its way into many homes.
To be fair, the other big techs (Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft) also have their own version of the “Echo” however, Amazon seems to be leading the way with this one the same way that Apple lead the way with iPhones.
What is the Echo?
If you haven’t heard about it yet, the Echo is a little speaker you put in your home that you can activate by voice. There is no screen interface like you have with your iPhone and Siri. Instead, you are only using your voice to interact with Amazon’s AI equivalent to Siri, “Alexa”.
The AI software Alexa seems to be doing well. Check out Amazon and you’ll see thousands of reviews for the Echo and Alexa, most of them being good. It’s not like Amazon was the first to have a voice activated device though. Siri has been with the iPhone for years. The difference? Alexa doesn’t give you a screen interface to mess with. Users can’t default to the screen. Instead they’re forced to use Alexa only by voice commands. A genius solution for sure.
Why is Amazon better than the others?
It all boils down to ease of use and functionality. Not just for the consumer, but also for other vendors that may want to integrate something with Alexa. Amazon runs their service called Amazon Web Services where it provides on demand cloud computing. This service allows companies to more easily integrate Alexa into their own gadgets. This allows Amazon to have favorable pricing for companies that want to take advantage of it.
To be clear, Amazon has been running the show with cloud computing for some time now. Can you guess how Netflix sends out all those streams to millions of people at such high speeds? You guessed it, They use AWS (Amazon Web Services).
Amazon is sure to use this AWS to their advantage. By allowing companies to easily integrate into their Echo ecosystem you’re going to see tons of 3rd party companies flock to Amazon to get in on this new market quickly. And guess where they’re going to sell these gadgets once they’re ready for prime time? Yup, Amazon.
It’s not going to be all easy for Amazon to take control of the market though. Google, Apple, and Microsoft might have something to say about that. If they can quickly get a bunch of companies to start making things to run with their Alexa ecosystem though they might quickly be able to take the lead in this AI category going forward. We’re still in the early innings for AI and voice control, but Amazon looks poised to profit handsomely if they continue to do the right things.