The 2020 calendar looms over us. Analysts are asked “what really matters?” It has been 20 years since Y2K cast its false shadow on the new millennium, but many old technologies have evolved and found new life. For 2020, it may be appropriate to include a little hindsight when considering the new year.
The Treasured Heart of the Home—Nest, Ring, or Echo
Long ago, the kitchen might have been the heart of the house, where family members gathered to eat, socialize, and coordinate. Later, the radio, and then television, brought outside events, world news, and entertainment to the family. That evolved to become the cable box—more properly the set-top box (STB). But multiple TVs and video games soon splintered the home’s central gathering spot.
Cable TV, phone, satellite, internet, and cellular service providers plus security and utility companies have fought for years to be the provider of a multitude of services to the residential home—as well as apartment and commercial buildings—through a central electronic hub, which often comes down to the modem, routers, or that STB.
More recently, Nest thermostats and Ring doorbell products, although expensive for the function they offer, have carved a decent market for themselves. And they started to expand their footprints to be the hub for other IoT functions around the house.
Meantime, voice input has taken on a far more visible role. It’s perhaps driven most by Amazon’s Echo products, which have broken open a prime spot in the living room, dining room, and eventually any other room, allowing the “couch potato” to sink to a new level of lazy. The automobile may soon follow, enhancing safety by enabling the eyes and hands to stay on the road and wheel.
Voice Box
Utilizing natural language, interpreted by voice-response software like Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and the HAL 9000, a seemingly friendly, interactive computer can give humans the answers to stupid questions, monitor timers and sensor inputs, and perform physical operations with certain connected devices. And it all can be done on a schedule or at the command of its master's voice, through the Internet, local network, or a personal area network (PAN) like Bluetooth.
Like the original iPod, iPhone, and iPad, and Macintosh (Steve Jobs really was genius), these voice-command devices aren't necessarily bringing brand new or unique functions to the user. Rather, they’re blending together—integrating—a number of existing functions into a new form factor or use model that makes it easier for the user to do things—and maybe they’re a little more natural, intuitive, and fun.
Note, however, the magnitude of the companies behind the voice-command products/services. These behemoths aren’t going to let “the other guy” win the battle for the heart of the home; there’s too much at stake in products, services, databases, modeling, and insight.
Realize that voice-to-text systems have been around for 10 to 20 years; the internet got rolling nicely 30 years ago; Amazon, eBay, and Etsy have been selling products online for a long time; and the concept of a hub in the home has been around nearly 35 years. The home hub may finally be gelling, although the winner is far from obvious as 2020 starts.
The standalone Echo opened an interesting new category.
Tom Starnes is Embedded Processor Analyst at Objective Analysis.