5 ms·

I view voice assistants as Silicon Valley’s version of the $5 Costco Rotisserie chicken or $2 Costco hotdog. I am more willing to pay for Amazon Prime and its

I view voice assistants as Silicon Valley’s version of the $5 Costco Rotisserie chicken or $2 Costco hotdog. I am more willing to pay for Amazon Prime and its music service is more useful to me. I also enjoy Fire TV cube because it is voice controlled. I can say the same for voice controls on Google TV and Apple TV, especially for Android Car and Apple Car Play. It’s a loss leader that makes sense just like discounted soda that you place in the back of a supermarket, so you can force your customers to check out your other deals

thinking4real 4y ago
[flagged]
- 12907835202 4y ago
  He compared it to a $5 chicken not a "premium" product.
  - boppo1 4y ago
    Meat will probably be considered a premium product sometime this decade. I hope not, but that's the way it's looking.
    - nibbleshifter 4y ago
      In many places meat worth eating already is a premium product.
- pydry 4y ago
  They are loss leaders. Whether they are effective is another matter.
8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
google home happily plays Spotify tho. it doesn't work any better or worse with YouTube music. is it really bringing additional revenue to their other services?
- echelon 4y ago
  > google home happily plays Spotify [...] is it really bringing additional revenue to their other services? It will once Google removes Spotify and all other third party alternatives to their own services. I'm typically against monopolistic practices that favor massive platforms, but this actually seems fully justified given that these voice control devices are losing so much money. I think it's fair for both Amazon Alexa and Google Home to be made incompatible with third party services. I'd rather them do this than see the devices wither on the vine. Just tell the regulators that the services and their associated hardware are losing money and that they'll be forced to shut down unless the companies can promote their own platforms exclusively. If Google and Amazon make this move to drop third party support at the same time, they won't have to worry about losing customers to the other home automation product. (Just make sure that it isn't collusion!)
- rippercushions 4y ago
  Google takes a hefty cut when you subscribe to Spotify through the Play Store.
  - FeistySkink 4y ago
    But you can subscribe outside of Google. How's that relevant?
    - rippercushions 4y ago
      It's relevant because Google still makes money off Spotify users that way. And Spotify is hosted on GCP to boot.
andrepd 4y ago
About the same, if rotisserie chicken or hotdogs spied on you and your family.
- Scoundreller 4y ago
  if????
  - jagged-chisel 4y ago
    Do you believe the chicken and hot dogs already spy on their consumers?
- cduzz 4y ago
  I have no idea if this happens or not, but I imagine it is trivial to monitor bluetooth and wifi beacon probes to identify all people who walk into a physical space. Similarly, I have no idea if it is possible but I imagine it is trivial to link purchases, especially if they require showing a membership card, with identity, and feed all that into a CRM / customer identity database. It'd be kinda silly to run a large scale retail operation without doing these things, honestly. The chicken / hot dog reference is to a USA based "big box" store that sells these things (meat products) at cost / loss as a form of advertising to get customers in the door. That chain also requires that people be "members" of the club prior to letting them in the store.
eastbound 4y ago
> I am more willing to pay for Amazon Prime and its music service I pay for Amazon Prime, so when I played the music, I clicked the track and it played another song. I though I had misclicked. It turns out Amazon Prime’s music offering is “It plays something else unless you pay up another specific fee.” It’s quite entertaining.

thinking4real 4y ago

[flagged]

12907835202 4y ago
He compared it to a $5 chicken not a "premium" product.
- boppo1 4y ago
  Meat will probably be considered a premium product sometime this decade. I hope not, but that's the way it's looking.
  - nibbleshifter 4y ago
    In many places meat worth eating already is a premium product.
pydry 4y ago
They are loss leaders. Whether they are effective is another matter.

8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago

google home happily plays Spotify tho. it doesn't work any better or worse with YouTube music. is it really bringing additional revenue to their other services?

echelon 4y ago
> google home happily plays Spotify [...] is it really bringing additional revenue to their other services? It will once Google removes Spotify and all other third party alternatives to their own services. I'm typically against monopolistic practices that favor massive platforms, but this actually seems fully justified given that these voice control devices are losing so much money. I think it's fair for both Amazon Alexa and Google Home to be made incompatible with third party services. I'd rather them do this than see the devices wither on the vine. Just tell the regulators that the services and their associated hardware are losing money and that they'll be forced to shut down unless the companies can promote their own platforms exclusively. If Google and Amazon make this move to drop third party support at the same time, they won't have to worry about losing customers to the other home automation product. (Just make sure that it isn't collusion!)
rippercushions 4y ago
Google takes a hefty cut when you subscribe to Spotify through the Play Store.
- FeistySkink 4y ago
  But you can subscribe outside of Google. How's that relevant?
  - rippercushions 4y ago
    It's relevant because Google still makes money off Spotify users that way. And Spotify is hosted on GCP to boot.

andrepd 4y ago

About the same, if rotisserie chicken or hotdogs spied on you and your family.

Scoundreller 4y ago
if????
- jagged-chisel 4y ago
  Do you believe the chicken and hot dogs already spy on their consumers?
cduzz 4y ago
I have no idea if this happens or not, but I imagine it is trivial to monitor bluetooth and wifi beacon probes to identify all people who walk into a physical space. Similarly, I have no idea if it is possible but I imagine it is trivial to link purchases, especially if they require showing a membership card, with identity, and feed all that into a CRM / customer identity database. It'd be kinda silly to run a large scale retail operation without doing these things, honestly. The chicken / hot dog reference is to a USA based "big box" store that sells these things (meat products) at cost / loss as a form of advertising to get customers in the door. That chain also requires that people be "members" of the club prior to letting them in the store.

eastbound 4y ago

> I am more willing to pay for Amazon Prime and its music service I pay for Amazon Prime, so when I played the music, I clicked the track and it played another song. I though I had misclicked. It turns out Amazon Prime’s music offering is “It plays something else unless you pay up another specific fee.” It’s quite entertaining.