No matter
who makes the hardware, the virtual aide linked to or packaged inside is likely
to be one of two: either Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant.
For
ShadeCraft, the maker of a new device that lets garden parasols be controlled
by voice, Alexa was simply more straight-forward to build in.
"It was
much easier and simpler to integrate," explains chief executive Armen
Gharabegian. "But we have been testing Google voice as well."
Users can
ask Alexa to open or close the sunshades mechanically, or play music via
Bloom's speakers. But ShadeCraft wants to integrate Alexa completely, so that
the parasol behaves just like an Amazon Echo smart speaker.
Voice
commands such as ordering Amazon products or asking what the weather will be
like could then be done from the patio as well as the living room.
Amazon has
made it hassle-free to add Alexa to products, by offering the assistant on a
single chip - the Alexa Connect Kit.
It has been
available for a few months now, but at CES Google just announced their equivalent
tool with a strikingly similar name - Google Assistant Connect.
However, any
product using that chip will have to wirelessly connect to a Google smart
device, which will process voice data.
Still, in
time, Bloom customers may be able to choose to talk to Google Assistant instead
of Alexa.
"I
think that we are perfectly positioned to be the extension of the AI hub
outdoors," said Mr Gharabegian.
The benefit
of this would be to give users access to the particular functionality offered
by different virtual helpers.
Google
Assistant, for example, tends to be better at answering queries about the wider
world than Alexa. It also has exclusive access to some of the search firm's
other products, letting users control Chromecast audio streams or display
YouTube and Google Maps on devices with screens.
Alexa, by
contrast, is more widely supported by third-party products and has more apps.
Another firm
that thinks its customers may be best at deciding how to interact verbally with
its devices is Sonos.
It has shown
off a prototype smart speaker that allows users to select either Alexa or
Google Assistant, though it isn't possible to activate them both at the same
time.
Part of the
problem is that interacting with multiple virtual helpers through one device
could get confusing.
"Say an
alarm goes off on the speaker," writes Dieter Bohn at tech site The Verge.
"You might not know whether it was Alexa or Google that set it off, and
you'd be stuck guessing which one to ask to stop while it beeps."
However, in
time, people may well become accustomed to using both assistants
interchangeably, and even others like Apple's Siri or Samsung's Bixby, depending
on what they want to do.
"[Consumers]
will be entrenched in one of those ecosystems and so the manufacturer of
appliances is not going to want to lose sales to consumers who prefer one of
them," says Ross Rubin at market analysts Reticle Research.
First-mover
advantage
But for now
the land grab is everything, which is why executives at Amazon must be feeling
pleased with Alexa's progress.
Amazon is
estimated to have 41% of the global smart speaker market while Google comes in
second, taking 28%. Alexa's dominance is visible across a wide range of other
products too.
"Alexa
had made the first-mover advantage and for a few years, that was the dominant
integration technology at CES," explains Mr Rubin. "Google has
stepped up its presence year after year."
Image
caption There are signs everywhere at CES that Alexa is still top dog in the
voice assistant space
Some,
though, remain sceptical that voice assistants add much value to most products.
"They're
putting Alexa in everything and I'm getting a little bit tired of it," one
user-interface specialist from a major car-maker told the BBC at CES.
"If I
want to open my toilet why should I tell Alexa to open my toilet instead of
opening it myself?"
The
specialist, who wishes to remain anonymous, noted how the "sheer
force" of Amazon's marketing was particularly noticeable at the tech trade
show this year.
One other
CES attendee concurred, tweeting: "To say that Amazon Alexa is everywhere
at CES in Las Vegas would be an understatement."
Mr Rubin
thinks that there are certain gadgets where the benefit of hands-free control
does make sense.
Take kitchen
appliances, for instance.
Instead of
trying to finger a recipe book or smartphone with - literally - butter fingers,
you can ask a voice assistant to call out the directions or repeat something if
you need to hear it again.
The
hands-free use case applies to Focals - a new range of stylish smart glasses
made by Toronto-based firm North.
Focals
project a colour display into the wearer's eyeball by bouncing it off the lens
to create a hologram-like visual in the right eye. This is used to relay text messages
or directions to a place, for instance.
"The
result that you get is a small transparent display that sits about an arm's
length in front of you," says spokesman Alexander Ingram.
With Alexa
and a speaker on board, there's another option - just listen to the information
instead. Or play some music.
North
received investment from Amazon and so has built Alexa into Focals - but Mr
Ingram says there are no plans to keep the glasses as an Alexa-only product.
"By
being able to take these assistants out of the home and into the world, that
just opens up a huge range of new applications," he said.
There is
another way to bring voice activation to a product without having to rely on
one of the tech giants' assistants.
Snips lets
firms build their own voice tools that run solely on the devices they were
intended for.
So, if you
want to make a coffee machine that simply responds to a handful of crucial
commands, it would be an option.
What's more,
by not relying on Amazon's or Google's servers, users would not need to bother
connecting their new coffee machine to the cloud before asking it for a
cappuccino. And that avoids the risk of a cyber-security scandal or other
privacy issue.
"This
kind of information should stay in your home, it should not go elsewhere, to a
server on the opposite side of the world," said the firm's vice president
of product, Sebastien Maury.
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