Can a brand create a sonic identity from a light bulb? 💡 - Issue #31

Very loaded week. In this issue we talk Apple HomePod launch in China, Alexa skills prizes, the rise of flash briefings plus voice design and advertising.

Buckle up, cause I might have loosen my horses with the length of this one. Please enjoy. Much ❤️ to you and yours in this holiday season.

You can say Amazon understand incentives like few companies today in the smart speakers/assistants race - or at all if we are going to be complete .

This is the announcement for the latest Alexa skills challenge. Build multimodal Alexa Skills using the Alexa Presentation Language and compete for $150,000 in total prizes.

You read it. Now go build with APL and earn those monies.

Not sure what’s APL? I made an episode highlighting its relevance, where you can also find resources to get you started. Suffice to say that APL is to the Echos what responsive is to the web, but better, much better.

Almost every month Amazon has run Alexa skills challenges with different prizes in US and internationally as they rolled out in other languages and territories. Winners get not only the prizes but the unique opportunity of Amazon showcasing their work.

You better believe it can. This is the story of Philips light bulbs sound logo quest.

Apple has balls, let me tell you that. It’s going to launch a smart speaker in the hottest battleground with a (much) higher price competing against Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi and Alibaba’s smart speakers. All of them combined has hundreds of millions of devices installed. And let’s not forget, way less pricey options, as low as $15 in sales. Yeap, and options, which in smart speakers, Apple does not have a lot to show. Is the company hoping that the customer loyalty to iPhones is going to be translated to the HomePod?

TechCrunch article illustrate this last point:

Despite formidable competition from Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi, Apple held an 11.9% market share in China as of the second quarter of 2018, according to Gartner (referring to the iPhone).

With the announcement of Apple Music in Alexa, we know Apple is focused in its services or at minimum Apple Music. What I will like to see more, it’s their efforts in a more service oriented Siri. It’s where every smart assistant platform is moving. Siri’s cofounder said in a CNBC interview that Apple dropped the ball in third party voice partners, but they are the future. I completely agree.

Brian Roemmele response on Quora is featured in this Forbes piece. As we have come to expect from Brian is a thoughtful read:

Read along to know why shopping carts won’t make sense on a voice first world, and what can replace pay-per-click model as we know it.

This response is from 2016, still very relevant.

We didn’t make the list, but you already know where to find us 👉 @voicefirstlabs. Follow us and tell your friends too.

SoundHound released this week in their blog a list of top 15 voice AI influencers to follow on Twitter. You know what I love about this list? The diversity of backgrounds, gender and industries. Don’t miss this opportunity to follow them all!

Despite all the reports of news consumptions in smart speakers, flash briefings are on the rise. It’s still not the consumers first choice in smart speakers, but it’s brief format and convenience might be the only impulse needed to stay. Brief audios or flash briefings are going to be way more pervasive, and become more interactive. Or at least is what I believe.

I will be speaking at the Alexa Conference about podcasting in the age of Alexa. There’s still time to get tickets. Hit me up mari at voicefirstweekly dot com if you would like to meet up and talk all things voice!