Much like last year at CES, Amazon, without a booth or formal attendance at the show, is still a dominant presence with Alexa. With companies unveiling both built-in Alexa products and integrations, Amazon is extending its lead as a way to tie together the smart home with voice-enabled capabilities.
Some announcements from this year’s show include the following alliances with varying companies and Alexa:
- Ford – One of the largest U.S. manufacturers of cars, Ford plans to offer “Alexa in the car” on vehicles equipped with its SYNC in-car platform this summer
- LG – plans to integrate Alexa with its connected Smart Instaview Refrigerator; also announced a personal assistant speaker—Hub—that is powered by Alexa but also competes directly with Amazon Echo
- Dish – its Hopper DVR will soon be able to be controlled by Alexa without the need for a remote
- ADT – plans to add Alexa to its ADT Pulse Security system so that ADT Pulse consumers can control their system via voice commands
- Tong Fang Global 4K TVs – new 4K TVs built by Tong Fang Global under brands such as Westinghouse and Seiki will include a remote with Alexa to control the TV using your voice
- Omaker – powered by Linkplay, this portable speaker has integrated with Alexa for hands free voice recognition
- Huawai – its Mate 9 smartphone will be integrated with Alexa
With expanded distribution across multiple industries, Amazon will not only expand Alexa’s reach and use cases, but positions Alexa as the interface of the smart home. By integrating into a number of digital touch points and devices that consumers come across throughout the day, Amazon’s Alexa is poised as the prime contender in voice controlled management of the home.
Though an incumbent force, it is not the only one that has recognized the opportunity in a voice-enabled assistant for the mass market. Tech giants, Google and Microsoft have developed similar smart assistants in a bid to rival Alexa’s foothold in the market.
For more information on voice control, Parks Associates’ industry report, Transforming the Smart Home User Experience, assesses leading personal assistant devices, evaluates the potential of voice control to shake up various connected home markets, presents consumer preferences for smart product interfaces, and forecasts sales of connected devices with embedded voice control through 2021.
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