Why the future of computing platforms lies not with Apple and Google, but with Amazon?

Leifeng.com: Although Amazon did not have a booth at the just-concluded CES 2017, Alexa was everywhere. Alexa is Amazon's smart voice assistant, currently mainly installed on Amazon's own smart speaker Echo. Currently, dozens of companies have announced that they will cooperate with Amazon to launch products based on Alexa, and Leifeng.com has also reported on some of these products.

The following article is from Vox and translated by Leifeng.com. It may not be reproduced without permission.

LG is making a refrigerator with Alexa built in, GE has launched an LED lamp with Alexa, and even Ford has announced that it will add Alexa capabilities to its cars later this year. This means you can talk to any of these products to find recipes, play music, ask about the weather, and more.

It may sound silly—after all, no one is going to talk to a crockpot and ask it to tell them last night's sports scores—but Amazon has an ambitious plan to create a third computing platform in your home, in addition to your PC and smartphone.

Microsoft ruled the PC era, and Google and Apple are vying for dominance in smartphones. Amazon, however, is trying to build a third generation computing platform: one created for devices without screens.

Since the launch of the Echo in 2014, Amazon has been quietly building its way to market domination. The fruits of those efforts were already visible at CES 2017, with a wave of companies adding Alexa to their devices. But whether Amazon can corner the market remains to be seen. Google has realized it's lagging behind and is desperately trying to catch up. At the end of last year, Google launched the Google Home smart speaker, which is equipped with the Google Assistant, which is similar to Alexa, and is aimed at Amazon's Echo. Apple and Microsoft, the creators of Siri and Cortana, respectively, are not planning to give up on this market.

Voice-controlled devices are the next big platform after smartphones

LG releases refrigerator with built-in Alexa

With computing chips now nearly dirt cheap (compared to the last century), they are now ubiquitous in everything from refrigerators to light switches. These chips will form the basis of the next big platform, just as mobile chips made the smartphone revolution possible. In fact, since 2014, every smart device you can think of has been on the market, from light bulbs to electric stew pots.

However, it is a big challenge for companies in this market to develop an interactive method that is truly suitable for users. It is impractical to add a touch screen to each light bulb, and users cannot tolerate a system that requires them to set all the light bulbs themselves.

You might have guessed that the industry would come up with an open standard that allows users to control their smart hardware through websites or apps. But Amazon believes that you don't need a screen to control these devices. All you need is your voice and ears. If you want to turn on the lights in the living room, you just need to say, "Alexa, turn on the lights in the living room." Yes, just like in Star Trek.

Unlike PCs and smartphones, Alexa is designed to run on a variety of devices. Most people only carry one smartphone, but it can run a variety of programs. In contrast, Alexa is built into a variety of single-purpose devices, such as lamps and refrigerators. So you can set your oven to 350 degrees automatically, have your TV play Game of Thrones, or have your Echo play Christmas music. You name it.

Cars may be one of the most convincing uses for Alexa. For decades, cars have come with radio as standard, allowing people to listen to songs, news, sports programs, etc. while driving. Compared to radio, Alexa can free your hands and keep you focused. Isn't it much easier to say "Alexa, play the music I listen to" than to take out your phone, turn on Bluetooth connection, and then set it up?

Amazon's smartphone failure is its advantage

Bezos unveils Fire Phone | 2014

When we look back to the last decade, when smartphones were just beginning to emerge, there were clear signs that mobile computing platforms would become the next big market. But companies at the time made a big mistake: they tried to copy the interface of desktop PCs into smartphones.

The most failed example is Windows CE, an early attempt by Microsoft at a mobile operating system. It looked like a smaller version of Windows, even with a similar start menu in the lower left corner. Windows CE devices usually had physical buttons and a stylus as a mouse substitute. However, for people who are used to today's iPhone or Android phones, the Windows CE experience is simply anti-human. For small-screen smartphones, the desktop PC interaction method is no longer applicable.

Windows CE version 5 | 2004

Other early smartphones, such as BlackBerry and Palm, did not copy the PC system, but still tried to install physical keyboards on palm-sized mobile phones, and their user interfaces basically remained in the PC era.

The great thing about the iPhone era that Steve Jobs created was that he clearly realized that a very simple interface was needed to operate on a small screen. He completely abandoned the keyboard and stylus, and did not try to copy the mini version of Mac OS. Under his leadership, Apple engineers developed new user interaction concepts, such as pinching to zoom in and out of pictures, which were gestures designed specifically for small screens, allowing users to complete all operations with their fingers.

Just as Microsoft’s reliance on PCs held it back from growing in the smartphone market, Apple and Google’s existing product lines hampered their chances of thinking systematically about the market for voice-controlled devices.

Apple launched its voice assistant Siri in 2011, but compared to Amazon, Apple can only be regarded as "getting up early but arriving late". Apple positioned Siri as a virtual assistant for its own devices, with the goal of selling more iPhones. Apple sees Siri as a feature of the iPhone, not a product that can be accessed through the iPhone. Therefore, Apple has no motivation to expand the scope of Siri's use.

At the same time, Apple's IoT strategy has always been centered on the iPhone. Apple created the smart home platform HomeKit, which allows users to control smart bulbs, door locks and other home devices through the iPhone. Of course, this may be effective in increasing iPhone sales and has also attracted several companies to join this ecosystem. But the reality is that a platform that can only run on one type of smartphone cannot become the most universal standard.

• Google is slightly better than Apple, but only slightly better. Google has tried several times to establish open standards for the IoT market, but each attempt was limited to Google's own products:

  
  

• Google once acquired smart thermostat maker Nest, and Nest has been promoting its own IoT standards. Some companies have signed the "Works With Nest" cooperation plan. However, the focus of this standard is to enable different devices to communicate with each other. Nest has never provided a truly attractive human-computer interaction interface for "Works With Nest" cooperative products.

  
  

• Google also created an operating system called Android Things for connected home devices, but that project also lacks a user interface that would appeal to consumers.

In addition, Google has developed a voice assistant similar to Siri - Google Now, but Google Now is also based on Google's own Android platform rather than being designed for standalone devices without screens.

Amazon, by contrast, was a relative newcomer to the market. It had previously tried to enter the smartphone market, but it failed. This allowed Amazon to shed its baggage and start from scratch. Since the Echo had no screen, Amazon didn’t waste time on features that were better suited to smartphones. They focused on developing the things that would make Alexa particularly useful: playing music, providing news and weather information, setting alarms, and so on.

Because Alexa was designed from the beginning for the screenless Echo, it fits perfectly with a wide range of home devices, most of which don’t have screens, and adding screens for interaction is pointless.

Google is trying to catch up, but it may be too late

In the past year, Google seems to have realized that Amazon's strategy is the right way. Back then, Google used Android to catch up with Apple's iOS, but now it has to catch up with Amazon.

In May 2016, Google upgraded Google Now and renamed it Google Assistant as a response to Alexa. In November, Google launched the Google Assistant version of Echo - Google Home.

But Google Home came two years after Echo. According to CNET statistics, at CES 2017, 31 companies launched products based on Amazon Alexa, and 16 companies cooperated with Apple's HomeKit. However, only 10 companies launched products with built-in Google Assistant.

It is worth noting that Microsoft's voice assistant Cortana is also on this track, but Microsoft has always focused on the automotive market. At this CES, Nissan and BMW both announced that they will support Cortana, and Harman also plans to launch speakers that support Cortana. However, compared with the other three giants, Microsoft's voice is much smaller.

Now it seems that Amazon has the right time and right place. For PCs and smartphones, the higher the sales of PCs or smartphones equipped with this system, the more developers will be attracted to develop programs. When the ecosystem of this system platform is more perfect, it will attract more consumers. It is like a positive feedback loop.

Amazon is also building its own "App Store", but the apps here are not programs, but skills that allow Alexa to perform specific tasks. You can download these skills like downloading programs, such as reading recipes, fitness guidance, or controlling smart homes. Currently, Alexa supports more than 7,000 skills, while last summer, this number just reached 1,000, which gives Amazon a great advantage in the competition.

Accordingly, as more companies join the Alexa camp, developing new skills for Alexa will become more and more attractive. Today, consumers expect banks and airlines to provide services through apps. In a few years, they may want to use Alexa to check their account balance or whether their flight is delayed.

via Vox