Amazon has the track record of incubating technologies that have the potential of becoming multi-million-dollar businesses. If AWS is one such technology, Amazon Echo is soon turning to be the next big thing for the company.
While Apple, Google, Microsoft, and IBM are making significant strides in cognitive computing, Amazon nailed it with Echo. Available in three different form-factors, Echo is already one of the best sellers on Amazon.com. Echo was one of the top-selling device priced over $100 on Black Friday and was one of the top 5 items ordered during the last holiday season.
Surprisingly, Echo is displacing the traditional players in the Hi-Fi Speakers category. According to 1010Data, Echo holds over 25% of market share, giving the competition a run for the money.
Automobile leaders, Ford and BMW, are working with Amazon to bring Echo into the dashboard. These partnerships will open up many interesting scenarios for consumers.
Though Siri, Google Now, and Cortana are sophisticated personal assistant technologies, Amazon Echo powered by Alexa is way ahead of them.
Here is an analysis of what is working for Echo.
1) Superior End-user Experience
Any successful technology must win customer confidence before transforming into a platform. The thing about Echo is that it precisely delivers what Amazon promises. The embedded array of mics is sensitive enough to pick up the keywords even when the user is far away. The combination of a speaker and woofer produce high-quality sound with deep bass, which is not inferior to any other professional sound system. The experience of hooking up Amazon Echo to the internet and configuring it through the companion mobile application is a pleasant experience. Alexa Skills, which are equivalent to apps on mobile platforms, keep growing regularly offering new capabilities to customers.
Amazon Echo hit the right chord with customers by meeting the expectations. It has definitely set a high bar for the competitors.
2) Simplicity and Developer Productivity
Amazon Echo is split into two layers – Alexa Voice Service (AVS) and Alexa Skills Kit (ASK). With AVS, developers can quickly build a custom device that mimics Echo. It’s simple to assemble an Echo-like device with cheaper computers such as Raspberry Pi. Any device that runs Java can embed AVS.
ASK empowers developers to create a variety of skills for Echo. Like a typical mobile app, each skill primarily focuses on a task such as playing music or controlling a smart device or responding to a query. The programming model of ASK is intuitive and simple for developers to get started. There is a clear separation between the definition of the skill and the implementation of the skill. This feature lets natural language experts design the most intuitive interaction model for the consumers while allowing the developers to focus on the implementation. ASK is independent of a specific language, framework, and runtime. Developers can choose to integrate with AWS or a custom web server.
The modular architecture of AVS and ASK make Alexa one of the simplest cognitive platforms available today.
3) Cloud Integration
AWS has transformed into a wild card for Amazon. From retail to gaming to streaming, the company is leveraging its cloud assets to gain an edge over the competition. When it comes to integration with AWS, Amazon Echo is not an exception. It heavily relies on the smarts exposed by a variety of services exposed by AWS.
The secret sauce of Amazon Echo lies in AWS Lambda, the Serverless Computing platform from Amazon. After defining the interaction model of the Alexa Skill, developers turn to Lambda for the heavy lifting. Every utterance and intent are sent to Lambda by Echo, which is processed by the code snippet written by the developer. AWS Lambda is a polyglot environment, which means programmers can choose their favorite language including JavaScript, Python, or Java to implement an Alexa Skill.
AWS Lambda acts as the gateway to a variety of AWS services including DynamoDB, Redshift, SNS and others, which the developers can tap into to provide additional functionality. For example, it's relatively easy to implement a push notification feature for Echo which alerts the user when a particular task is done.
4) Platform Game
Amazon has taken a leaf from both Apple and Microsoft’s playbook. It has turned Alexa into a platform with multiple possibilities for the developers and partners. Almost everything associated with Alexa platform can be effectively monetized. While Amazon itself is selling Amazon Echo, it will start licensing the technology to various OEMs. It may even enable partners to introduce additional wake words that go beyond “Alexa” and “Echo.”
Developers can easily monetize their skills by charging consumers. Amazon will validate, curate, and maintain the skills like the way Apple does with its App Store.
The business model of Alexa is designed in the right way to turn that into a rich platform of skills, APIs, and services. This will go a long way in attracting multiple players to Alexa.
5) Ecosystem Participation
From the get-go, Amazon focused on building an ecosystem around Alexa. From Philips Hue to Sonos to Samsung SmartThings, there are dozens of smart home devices and hubs that integrate with Echo.
With the proliferation of smart devices at home, customers are forced to deal with a diverse set of applications to control each device. There is a need for aggregating the devices through one unified device, which may act as a universal remote control. Amazon Echo is ahead of the game when it comes to smart home integration. It's already on its way to becoming the master commander to control anything and everything that's a part of your smart home.
