Digital Assistants poised to take over in 2017, with Amazon leading the way yet again
Echo’s sales signal expanding consumer interest in devices featuring virtual assistants and suggest there’s plenty of room for growth. Indeed, this year’s sales volume could be just the tip of the iceberg. In August 2016, Strategy Analytics estimated that 1.8 million digital voice-activated devices (most of them Amazon Echo) would be sold in the US in 2016, with just 2.3% of US households having one of the devices. The penetration rate was projected to reach 11.5% by 2020.
Source: Amazon Echo’s Holiday Sales Hint at Huge Market to Come – eMarketer
Digital / Virtual Assistants are not something new — they’ve been around for some time now — Apple’s Siri was launched with the iPhone 4s in 2011. But as is often the case, such technology can take time — for the right form factor and application to click with the end users. Amazon has seemingly done that with Echo and as the sales for the device takeoff, so too will the application development for the devices — kind of like how Apple didn’t invent the smartphone, they just made it better and when they did, all the developers jumped on board to create a revolution.
With the Virtual Digital Assistants, there is a whole eco-system that can be developed that goes way beyond the day-to-day information and suddenly put Amazon and the Alexa digital assistant in the Echo device in the driver’s seat of something similar to the Google Adwords business:
- Alexa, what can we order for dinner? — what would restaurants pay to be listed first?
- Alexa, who should I call to fix my dishwasher? — how does the local repairmen even get listed for that?
- Alexa, find me a hotel in New York City for next week — the jockeying for that listing is worth a lot.
We do wonder how Apple has seemingly missed the boat on this digital assistant as it has all the pieces — apps, music, movies, content, etc. But in this world, a company so used to being in the driver’s seat finds itself in catch-up mode and let’s face it, the Apple Watch isn’t a solution that’s going to help it overtake Amazon.
