The Tech Major Ecosystem Wars Are Here with Aggressive, Loss-Led On-Boarding

Blog post by Hanna Kahlert

7 Jan 2020

Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo Dot

google home

Soon we will probably all have home speakers, whether we like them or not. They are starting to appear almost out of the ether, much like the classic double-sized Sports Direct mugs everyone had in their...

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Facebook Launches Its Smart Speaker: A Few Strategic Considerations For Portal

Blog post by Zach Fuller

9 Oct 2018

Amazon Echo

apple home pod

echo dot

Earlier this year, MIDiA predicted that Facebook would join the smart speaker market. A TV dongle or smart speaker: It makes strategic sense for Facebook to develop a TV dongle like Amazon’s Fire Stick...

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Sonos @ 15

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

8 Sep 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Sonos, granddaddy of the connected home audio marketplace, is now 15 years old. Sonos was a pioneer that was so far ahead of its time, it inadvertently found itself as one of the key early drivers of streaming...

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The Three Eras Of Paid Streaming

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

28 Jul 2017

3 ages of streaming

3 eras of streaming

3 phases of streaming

Streaming has driven such a revenue renaissance within the major record labels that the financial markets are now falling over themselves to work out where they can invest in the market, and indeed whether...

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Thoughts On Second-Order Effects For Content Discovery in Voice

Blog post by Zach Fuller

30 Jun 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Second-order effects are rarely considered when new technologies come to the fore and reach critical mass. For example, the realisation of smartphones, the emergence of Apple's app store and the ubiquity...

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Quick Take: Google Home Counters The Echo Threat By Introducing Payments

Blog post by Zach Fuller

1 Jun 2017

Alexa

Amazon Echo

google assistant

Google have released a new Google Payment API with specific emphasis on voice capabilities. The service will allow Google Home device users to pay in-app or online with any verified credit or debit card...

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Amazon Double Down on Voice Control by Announcing Echo Show

Blog post by Zach Fuller

9 May 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Amazon is doubling down on Echo’s success (60% growth rate since November 2016) by just announcing the Echo Show. A visual iteration on the Echo, the device is priced at $229.99 and will initially only...

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Quick Take: Baidu Acquires xPerception as Competition in Sensory Computing Heats Up

Blog post by Zach Fuller

14 Apr 2017

Alibaba

Amazon Echo

Apple

Chinese tech giant Baidu announced today they will be acquiring xPerception, in what can be interpreted as a strategic play for the Augmented Reality market. At face value, xPerception covers much of 2017...

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A Tale Of Two Technologies: The Narrative And The Numbers For VR And Voice

Blog post by Zach Fuller

1 Feb 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

In the tradition of effective storytelling, the technology industry’s romantic narrative often involves two basic troupes: a garage and a dream. This alluring chronology is so embedded in start-up folklore...

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Will Amazon Eat The Voice Command World?

Blog post by Karol Severin

9 Jan 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Last year was undoubtedly the year of video. As CES kicked off to shine more light on where the efforts of the industry are headed this year, it is becoming increasingly clear just how much voice command...

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Quick Take: Amazon Music Unlimited Comes To The UK

Blog post by Mark Mulligan

14 Nov 2016

Amazon

Amazon Echo

amazon music unlimited

Amazon announced the anticipated launch of Amazon Music Unlimited in the UK today. For my full take on Amazon Music Unlimited see my previous post here. Make no mistake, Amazon are taking this launch seriously,...

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