Blog: google home

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the entertainment world. Check out the latest insight from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage areas - music, entertainment and fandom, creator economy and social.

The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Hanna Kahlert

14 Dec 2022

metaverse

NFTs

As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question : is this it for the tech industry? Planning for 2023 seems to mean planning for disruption, an...

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

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 student flats but no one remembered ever acquiring.

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Free Streaming Goes to Voice: Should Radio Companies Be Worried?

Zach Fuller

25 Apr 2019

amazon streaming strategy

google home

radio disruption

History doesn’t repeat itself. It does, however, rhyme. Amazon have followed up the announcement of its free music streaming service by elaborating on its integration into Alexa and its Echo device. Not coincidentally, Google swiftly followed suit by announcing a similar service.

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Thoughts on Spotify’s Acquisition of Gimlet Media and Anchor

Zach Fuller

6 Feb 2019

Amazon Alexa

Anchor

apple homepod

Spotify is reported to have purchased the podcast companies Gimlet Media and Anchor. Having only just reported an operating profit for the first time, the deals demonstrate not only how Spotify is still firmly locked in growth mode and its market share in music streaming platforms but also how much ...

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

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 or smart speaker like Apple’s HomePod, to give it a hardware foothold in the home—something ...

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Walled Gardens: How Does Amazon and Google’s Approach Compare to Apple’s?

Zach Fuller

22 Jan 2018

Amazon

consumer electronics

echo

Having begun to embed itself within popular consciousness throughout 2017, voice control is poised to extend its influence and usher in the latest hardware paradigm shift in tech. What is important to consider is that in these early days of the technology, the charge is being led by two companies wi...

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

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 saved to their Google account via products such as Google Play, Chrome and YouTube.

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Why the Voice Control Landscape Will Be So Competitive

Zach Fuller

26 May 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Withthe success of Prime and the Echo, Amazon at present is experiencing the same halo effect that graced Microsoft in the 90s and Apple in the 00s. Withtheir finger on the pulse of everything from entertainment (Manchester by-the-sea, American Gods) to drones, there appears to be a consensus that s...

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Will Amazon’s Lex Platform Be the New App-Store?

Zach Fuller

21 Apr 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Prime Video

Swiftly following the success of the Echo, Amazon have announced their Lex platform is now open to 3rd party developers, allowing them to create and monetise chat-bots, further embellishing the device.

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