Amazon’s Echo has been widely hailed as a major innovation for the digital home by relying entirely on voice for input and output for information and services. It has already been dubbed the iPhone of the smart home by perfecting the voice driven approach already supported by other “virtual assistants”, such as Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana. Many people have not even heard of those and the reason Echo is enjoying the rave reviews is almost paradoxical – it actually has less functionality than such devices because it doesn’t have a screen to input commands and display information.
Echo is an IP connected speaker with voice activation and software enabling a range of domestic functions, including reminders and alarm calls, while naturally having access to Amazon’s web site alongside information services such as weather. It is also a decent quality sound system in an elegant cylindrical form factor, incorporating a far-field microphone so that it can pick up voice commands across a room. But by cutting out any visual input or display mechanism altogether Amazon has taken the leap that Microsoft, Apple and for that matter Google have so far failed to make but no doubt will soon emulate now.
For here we are talking about a significant milestone for the human/digital interface, which can be seen as a culmination of several decades of research into speech recognition. It signifies the technology is now deemed robust enough to be trusted as the sole input medium for what Amazon at least hopes will become a major branch of Internet service as well as becoming a hub of the digital home. Make no mistake, Amazon Echo is positioned as a way of controlling smart home services such as security monitoring and heating control, as much as for accessing information.
We must not forget also that Amazon’s core business is still very much selling everything from the proverbial soup to nuts and Echo should also been seen in that context. It is effectively a permanently stationed sales agent in the home, not only directing trade to the Amazon web site but also collecting and collating information about tastes and preferences of a household and its individuals. Amazon makes no secret of this as can be seen from the use cases it has presented so far. For example shopping lists can be created by verbal commands like “add ketchup”, which of course can then be fulfilled by Amazon. Even the “to do” lists contain information that Amazon can then use in combination with knowledge of past purchases to generate intelligent recommendations of products associated with the tasks, such as household cleaning materials.
There is indeed a potential Big Brother aspect associated with having a listening device permanently switched on in the home. Although the word “Alexa” has to be spoken to wake the device up, Amazon has not confirmed at present whether Echo is continually monitoring sound in the home. Even actions such as opening and closing of doors could yield potentially useful information, while voice recognition can also be used to identify individuals in the room when they are speaking.
So Amazon does have some questions to answer and could face a challenge reassuring consumers that it really will respect their privacy. Here traditional broadband operators have a great opportunity to exploit their trusted relationships with subscribers. They could come in and offer similar devices purely as an added value option with no extra strings attached. They could say they will be listening to their customers’ needs but not eavesdropping on their private conversations to gain information for advertising or other purposes.
Amazon Echo is an exciting innovation that will change the way people interact with the digital world. But as so often it may not be the first mover that gains the advantage and in this case that is likely to be because of privacy concerns associated with the big global Internet players. That is why we think broadband service providers have a great chance to capitalize by introducing voice enabled robot assistants as part of their evolving strategies for the smart home.
But operators will not succeed merely by playing the privacy card. They must also accentuate the positive and show that they can go further than the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Google by promoting an open system that will work with third part apps and services. The real trump card may be that voice driven ambient computing of the sort enabled by Amazon Echo will get away from the tyranny of the screen that currently dominates online experiences. A voice driven robot holds the potential to interact with digital services in a more efficient and compelling way than even a smartphone or tablet.
