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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.
Just because the market share of Alexa went down doesn't mean the absolute numbers of Alexa devices are down. There are now even more devices spying, but not from Amazon, and they are dwarfing Amazon's numbers.
To be fair... yeah, they all track everything you do with those devices. I find Google's to be more invasive though.
If you adjust ANY privacy settings in your google profile to not track you then the Google Home won't work. You have to completely open yourself up to google and have wide-open inadvisable permissions in your google account just to use the Google Home. Because I told Google not to track certain aspects of my web browser google home won't work.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
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.
TFA does not give any actual numbers - only relative percentages. It is possible Alexa's user base has actually grown, but since China now has some sort of similar service, the global market share percentage of Alex will have dropped. That is a pointless statistic, especially if Amazon has not been targeting China in the first place.
Better known as 318230.
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.
I'm not getting a IVR until it also has a form in the shape of a cute 2D waifu. And so far the gatebox is Japanese only. But once a company can combine this with good AR, I'm buying one even if it's only for the constant companionship.
#DeleteFacebook
"Why do all home assistant names end with a vowel?"
I think it indicates a female, at least in European languages.
My daughter's name is Zrngplt, you insensitive clod.
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”.