Internet of Things (IoT) might be the newest player in the markets and brands have been putting in a lot of efforts to understand it. The marketers have already started looking at Amazon and Google to dominate the market comprising of connected devices in the year 2018.
The upcoming Annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will become home to showcase comprising of the gadgets from Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home with their expanding sets of AI skill and services.
As per Steven Moy, EVP and Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. at R/GA, ‘It’s only been a year since Alexa got introduced to the market and I have not seen the pace of acceleration so fast in terms of adoption and people getting accustomed to it.’ Alexa and Google Home have together sold more than 27 million devices in the U.S as per the date from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners and which is, in reality, a great number for companies recently released with their products.
Jeff Malmad, who is the Managing Director of Mindshare North America’s Life+, has been keeping a busy eye on the growth of IoT in the states adds ‘The result of voice assistants’ exploding popularity is a new gold rush to build branded skills similar to the rush to build apps when the iPhone first came put and App Store was launched. The ultimate device and gateway to the Internet of Things happen to still be your mobile phone today’. this is inadvertently correct as smartphones control how consumers access their voice skills these days.
“Because Alexa has gotten such traction, [brands] are saying, ‘How do I bring voice to my experiences? How do I bring conversational interfaces to existing products?’” said David Hewitt, VP and global mobility lead at SapientRazorfish. “We’re seeing the enterprise-class investments starting to be made that allows brands and companies to think about configuring and scaling a lot more [IOT] services.”
What to expect at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas?
Amazon is scheduled to host nine presentations and workshops over the two days span where we can see some exceptional technology launch and might dive into the unimaginable AI skill of Alexa. There will also be specific sessions about connected automobiles and another session dubbed ‘Amazon’s Quest for Alexa to Be Everywhere’.
On the other hand, Google will its biggest appearance in the trade show since 2015 a booth specially designed for it where its products including its virtual assistant Google Home will be showcased. LG will also a new, spiced up smart speaker named ‘ThinQ’ which plugs into both Alexa and Google Home and makes it one of the handiest products manufactured by LG in the recent times.
Are the IoT things Way Too Pricey?
Often newer and exclusive technologies come at prices way too much for an average size pocket. While the consumers have been taking the IoT very seriously, they might not go for overpriced items such as the $2600 connected refrigerator or $120 alarm clock which emits the smell of coffee and music to wake you up.
“Every year at CES, you’ve been seeing the connected refrigerator going back years, but nobody has them in their house,” Malmad said. “Soon, you’re going to start to see that shift to a connected fridge being more common than not as the price comes down, screens become less expensive and consumers are used to these voice-connected speakers—it’s just going to be as common as having a rear-view camera in your car when you’re reversing.”
Similarly, consumers are not that interested in IoT such as watches and health tracking wearables from startups and smaller companies which they consider new to the field and immature.