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Serious Question; Is Google ever going to get out of catch-up mode in this department?
by wonder_bread 9y ago
Serious Question; Is Google ever going to get out of catch-up mode in this department?
- tanilama 9y agoExcept Chromecast, cant really recall what innovative Google did with hardware
- tj-teej 9y agoGoogle Glass was innovative?
- wonder_bread 9y agoGlass was innovative and ahead of it's time but that being said it feels like Google (and Apple for that matter) are falling into the risky playbook of mirroring other companies' ideas and assuming their scale will take care of the rest
- tanilama 9y agoIt is a failure
- m_ke 9y agoWhy would they waste their time? They already have a speech recognition platform, it's called android. Amazon is wasting money on hardware because they missed out on mobile and with echos they're hoping to be there when the NLP catches up.
- wonder_bread 9y agoYou don't think they should be worried at all about the Echo platform?
- m_ke 9y agoI can't think of a single problem that an echo can solve for me that the phone in my pocket can't. Echo makes perfect sense for amazon but as a consumer I don't get what the benefit is. Apple will eat this market because they're smart enough to position the homepod as a premium speaker instead of a home assistant. They'll also eat into Sonos and Bose.
- untog 9y agoNah, these are definitely their own platform. Just ask anyone that owns one - they don't use it as a phone substitute. Plus, it would be another method for Google to bring iPhone users into the fold. I know plenty of friends and relatives with an Alexa, but a lot less with a Google Home. I think Google needs to make an equivalent of the Echo Dot - a small, cheap device that people can put in multiple rooms.
- wonder_bread 9y agoI had the exact same thought as you two minutes ago if I'm honest and apparently that's on the way with the new pixel phone. http://www.droid-life.com/2017/09/19/google-home-mini-exclusive/ http://www.droid-life.com/2017/09/19/google-home-mini-exclus...
- m_ke 9y agoI'm guessing you either live in the bay area/seattle or work at amazon. I don't know anyone in new york who uses an echo. I've heard of a few people who got one when it came out but they all stopped using it after a day or 2. Google will be the winner the personal assistant market because they have billions of people who use android, maps, gmail, drive, search, calendar, translate etc. If we ever switch to conversational interfaces they could be in the position to really hurt Amazon.
- untog 9y agoI live in New York, so, no. While I agree that Google is in a stronger position to win the eventual personal assistant battle, I disagree with your original proposition that it'll be done through Android phones. I think the potential for voice assistants is overhyped, but there is still potential there, and you can't achieve the same thing with a phone that's in your pocket/bag/whatever. Ask someone that uses one before you dismiss the product category entirely.
- m_ke 9y agoI'd love to hear what the use cases are besides ordering stuff from amazon. I could think of maybe using alexa to control my IoT devices (I don't own any) but even then I'd be more interested in controlling them when I'm not home. If there's a market for these devices it's as a replacement for premium speakers like sonos / bose. Apple seems to be going in that direction with the homepod and it has a great shot at dominating because most of the consumers in that market already own other apple products. My phone is next to me 99% of the time. Google knows when my meetings are, where I'm flying next week and who I talk to. If there is a shift to voice it will probably be because of another wearable device (like airpods or glasses).
- Sargos 9y agoThe new Google Home Mini is smaller than this device. They started later than Amazon but they've made a huge amount of progress in a year and aren't really that far behind anymore. In fact in some areas Amazon is playing catchup (such as multi-user voice support)
- gh02t 9y agoThe other big area Google has an advantage in is in one that really matters - the reliability of its voice recognition. I have both a Google Home and an Echo and the Google Home and the Google device's actual speech recognition is dramatically better. Maybe it's just my voice, but the Echo seems to have a lot of trouble understanding me with some commands even after doing the training, while the Google Home rarely misunderstands me.
- m_ke 9y agoI'm convinced amazon shipped the echo to collect speech data so that they don't get killed if there's an interface shift. Apple and Google are both getting millions of hours with android and ios. It's also the reason why samsung is forcing everyone to use bixby.