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Amazon's Alexa is Getting Clobbered (axios.com)
An anonymous reader writes: In the first quarter of 2016, Amazon Echo held 80% of the global smart assistant market, according to marketing research firm Canalys. Chinese companies were so far behind that they registered zero. But just a year later, Amazon has collapsed to a 28% market share, behind Google Home's 36% and ahead of China's Alibaba and Xiaomi with a combined 19%. Amazon had a strong head start with its Echo lineup, which launched in 2014. But now it's losing ground both in the U.S. and China, the leading markets for the devices.
they are dwarfing Amazon's numbers.
TFA is about sales, not the installed base.
There are about 20 million Amazon Echo devices in use.
There are about 7 million Google Home devices.
Amazon still dominates.
Disclaimer: I have both an Echo and a Google Home. I use the Echo more because it is in the kitchen, which is convenient for news updates, voice management of shopping lists, etc. The "Home" is in my wife's home office, and she uses it mostly for listening to music.
Back in ye olden days we found out people respond better to women. Both genders find them less threatening.
So you'll note most IVR systems have female voices, or these days personas. It extended to bots / assistants.
Back in ye olden days we found out people respond better to women. Both genders find them less threatening.
This is culturally dependent. In America, Europe, and Japan automated voices are generally female. In Asia and the Mideast, they are usually male.
Latin America goes for male voices as well, which leads to the interesting phone tree opening with a female voice greeting you in English, followed by a male voice saying “para Español, marque nueve”.