Format Wars: The Battle for Voice Tech Dominance | Thingee’s Tech-Talk

It’s exciting to be part of “the next big thing” however we’re living in an age where the big things are coming so rapidly it can be nerve-wracking to just jump right in. Nowhere is that hesitation more real than in the voice activated digital assistant marketplace!  How can you decipher which product or company has the edge or which will sustain through the uphill climb of product introduction and adoption?  Tech-Talk is here to help.

Welcome back!

In this issue of Tech-Talk we’ll share some insights focusing on the battle being waged for the top voice technology provider -Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, or Google’s Home.  Each has a corporate giant behind it, but which product is offering the broader scope and ability that may help it survive the inevitable shakedown? Find out in Tech-Talk!

Once you’ve had the chance to listen, let us know what you think.  Then  jump in if you haven’t yet picked up a digital assistant. Get familiar with this technology because it’s going to be here for a while and it’s a tool that will not only make your life easier but help you to better serve your customers. That’s where Thingee comes in.  We’re immersed in this technology and we’d love to share some applications that make sense using voice technology to benefit your business and your customers.  Call us.

We look forward to speaking with you and as always… Thanks for watching!

Jeff Bromley
Jeff@thingee.com
973-644-9012 ext. 11

Tech-Talk brings you the latest tech advances to put you ahead of the curve.  Look for future Tech-Talk posts, subscribe to our email list, and give Thingee a call to discuss how this new tech can help achieve your goals. One way to ensure you won’t miss any of our Talk-Talk video casts is to subscribe to our  YouTube channel.

Video Transcript

0:00 Hey everybody Jeff Bromley here from

0:02 Thingee, welcome back to Tech-Talk where

0:04 we talk about all things digital in

0:05 today’s session we’ve got a format war

0:08  good old-fashioned format war we love

0:10 those so in the past few sessions we’ve

0:13 been talking about voice interaction

0:16 well guess what there’s a number of

0:18 players in the marketplace around voice

0:19 interaction we’re going to talk about it

0:21 them today we’re going to possibly see

0:22  there who’s out in front and some of the

0:26 winners are going to be and who

0:27 potentially some of the losers are going

0:28 to be so we’ve got Siri Siri comes with

0:30 an iPhone comes with every iPad it’s out

0:32 there a lot of people have it we’ve got

0:35 Google Home relatively newcomer of

0:36 the game they came out I don’t know a

0:38 few months ago you got Microsoft Cortana

0:41 really not looking at them as much but

0:43 Amazon Alexa we are laser focused on

0:45 these guys these guys are making it so

0:48 easy so let’s take a look back and look

0:52 at some of the format wars and see if we

0:54 an kind of deduce some information from

0:56 here so you got VHS versus Betamax so

0:58 for those of you who decided to make

1:00 that investment and Betamax – sorry

1:03 VHS that was the winner unfortunately

1:06 Betamax was better Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD

1:08 well I personally thought that HD DVD

1:11 was going to win but Blu-Ray came out in

1:13 front you got Microsoft Surface versus

1:16 iPad

1:16 we’re not going to debate that we’re not

1:18 going to get into an Apple Microsoft

1:19 battle here what we are going to talk

1:21 about is some of my opinions somewhere

1:23 I think things are going so wondering

1:27 what I think is going to be winning this

1:28 well it comes up to two guys it’s either

1:31 go to the Amazon Alexa or Apple with

1:33 Siri integration so let’s run down some

1:35 of the points here you got Amazon Alexa

1:37 Amazon Alexa has a great extensibility

1:40 so Amazon has their skill store and then

1:44 they allow people to have their own

1:45 skill servers so people can write and

1:47 create how they want their information

1:49 to be accessed and how extensible they

1:52 want their ecosystem to be so that makes

1:54 this a phenomenal platform for people to

1:56 bolt into because we can really do a lot

1:58 we can bolt in with other people’s API’s

2:00 we can bolt in with user authentication

2:03 we can put in to pay systems put things

2:05 behind paywalls there’s a lot of neat

2:07 stuff that we can do with this and then

2:09 you look at Apple

2:10 you can’t count these

2:12 they’ve been talking about making Siri

2:15 much more extensible there well I’m sure

2:18 they’re working on it we’re going to

2:20 hope and pray this year at WWDC they’re

2:22 going to make some huge announcements

2:24 with it but when you think about it from

2:26 a device perspective right now Amazon

2:28 Alexa people have to go out and spend

2:30 $50 on which by the way is a great

2:32 cost of entry that’s cheap but how many

2:35 people have iPhones

2:36 how many people have iPads and already

2:38 have this in their hands so if Apple

2:41 plays their cards right it’ll be very

2:44 very interesting to see what happens

2:45 between Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri

2:50 I think that’s where things are going so here’s

2:57 a something might take-a-way

2:58 from all this one if you haven’t gotten

3:01 into the game if you don’t like Siri

3:02 or you don’t like Amazon will tough

3:04 break down those barriers you’ve got to

3:06 start learning and learning about this

3:07 this is going to be changing the way

3:09 that we’re going to be interacting with

3:10 our data I’ve said it before the

3:12 information is going to start coming in

3:14 a different forms and fashions it’s a low

3:16 cost of entry it’s 50 bucks take the 50

3:18 dollars go out there spend it and learn

3:19 it or start learning how to use Siri

3:21 better I know that there’s people that

3:22 don’t like to use her because she’s

3:24 given us some black eyes in the past but

3:26 she’s gotten a lot better and you got to

3:27 keep improving and you know from my

3:30 perspective just start using it you know

3:32 last night sitting at dinner and I have

3:34 an Alexa in my home and I said Alexa

3:36 start playing my Pandora station Alexa

3:38 turn it up it made my life that much

3:41 easier so I think that this is just

3:43 going to change the way that we’re going

3:44 to interact with our data change the way

3:46 they’re going to interact with our homes

3:47 change the way that we’re going to

3:48 interact with one another it’s really

3:50 going to be a game changer so get in the

3:52 game guys did you like this video if you

3:55 did you could do three things right now

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4:08 look forward to seeing you next time

4:10 until then thank you.