New York Times:
Google will introduce its much-anticipated entry into the voice-activated home device market on Wednesday, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Named Google Home, the device is a virtual agent that answers simple questions and carries out basic tasks. It is to be announced at Google’s annual developers’ conference in Silicon Valley.
Google Home will come to market in the fall — a long time away, given the speed of technology, but Google needed to plant a stake in the ground now. The device will compete with Amazon’s Echo, which was introduced less than two years ago. Amazon has already sold an estimated three million units.
The market’s been made. Every home will eventually have a similar device. Will Apple ever expose Siri in this way? Or will they keep Siri tethered via iPhone/iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and, eventually, your Mac?
This is a perfectly good market for Apple to sit and improve what they have before releasing a product while the others make mistakes/hammer out details — as well as figure out exactly how to protect our privacy better (as Apple says it does, better in some ways than others).
Last year, i was pretty sure that the next apple tv would be called Apple Hub and would be a merge betwen Timecapsule, Home automation, Health monitoring and apple tv.
I was wrong.
“Virtual agents powered by artificial intelligence are one of the major new battlegrounds for consumer technology. Apple’s Siri, released in October 2011, drew widespread attention but it was the Echo that, after mixed initial reviews, has become a genuine consumer application.”
… only 3 million sold? OK.
I would love it if Siri could turn on the BT on my phone and connect to my car – or better yet – if the phone/SIRI knew I was in/near my car and turned on BT and connected it … oye.
And where is Nest in all this?? Does the downward spiral continue.
I think Siri in OS X is a step toward this. I also agree with Dean that Apple’s hard line on privacy is an advantage here for those people concerned about a device that listens. Yes, I know, it’s only listening when you alert it… really. No, really.
I can see various wearables also playing in this – something like Echo is nice, but you need to be in the same room. A wearable that connects to a central hub which does most of the processing? interesting.