Open Voice week #75 - In 3 years, 70% of consumers will replace their visits to the dealer, store, or bank with their voice assistants despite hackers with lasers

Apple’s two smart-home devices compare with dozens of offerings like the Echo and Nest Hub Max from Amazon and Google, respectively. More importantly, Amazon and Google’s smart-home ecosystems are far larger than Apple’s. Apple lists about 450 compatible HomeKit devices on its website from third-party device makers. Amazon says that Alexa works with 85,000 smart-home products from 9,500 manufacturers and that consumers have linked tens of millions of home devices to Alexa. Google says its home platform works with more than 10,000 devices from 1,000 brands. Apple’s approval process for third-party accessories is known to be stricter than others.

The fact that more than two-thirds of smart speaker owners haven’t engaged with brands speaks to a lack of creativity. What we’re experiencing now is similar to the social media buzz a few years ago: brands were intent on just having a presence on Twitter, without any thought on how they were going to make best use of the presence from a creative standpoint.