Amazon has started offering select manufacturers free use of its smart speaker microphone technologies as part of its efforts to spread the use of its Alexa virtual assistant. The move is in response to the launch of the Google Home speaker and its associated assistant.
An Amazon spokesman said the announcement was not meant to signal that it had become less committed to developing its own Echo speaker range, which uses the Alexa assistant.
Amazon’s invite-only offer to select manufacturers includes the right to replicate the seven-microphone array it uses in its own products to hear voice commands from across a room, and the use of proprietary algorithms used for wake-up recognition, focusing on an owner’s voice, and handling problems such as echoes and other noises. The manufacturers taking advantage of the scheme will be given a reference kit as a starting point for their own designs, and the freedom to source components from a range of parts manufacturers.
No sales figures have been revealed by Amazon for its Echo devices, but analysts have estimated that more than eight million have been sold in the US alone since the launch in 2014, and this not counting those sold in the UK, Germany and Austria.
Amazon has also formed partnerships with LG, Ford and Huawei, among others, to build Alexa into products including fridges, cars and smartphones.
Google released its rival voice-activated Google Home speaker last November in the US, and this month in the UK. It is a variation of the digital helper it developed for Android handsets and includes options to play videos and TV, which the Amazon device currently cannot do. Also, many smartphone-makers have since adopted it, and Nvidia has added the tech to its latest TV set-top box.
Google Home and Amazon Echo
Analyst Comment
I’m sitll using my Alexa a lot of the time, but at the moment only for radio, conversions (it’s really useful to ask Alexa to give me conversions to units and currencies while editing news stories), alarms (which are handy and very easy to set) and to show off the technology. I have spent a lot of time uploading music to the Amazon cloud, but then got a free year of Spotify, bundled with a new phone contract, so, given how awful the Amazon PC client for music is, it may be a while before I make the most of it. I really should try harder to use the Spotify app on Alexa. If it works well, I’ll get an Echo to go with my hi fi. My wife hates technology and rarely listens to music, but she might be tempted by ‘Alexa play Aerosmith’.
I have heard that the Google Home is a bit cleverer in using geography than the Echo. For example, it can take account of whether the gallons being converted are US or Imperial.
Although we don’t cover audio directly, we’re watching the development of voice as it is bound to be important in TV control. (BR)
