Behind the smart gadgets, Amazon and Google are waging war
LAS VEGAS (AP) – The flash of the CES technology show in Las Vegas is all about robots, drones and smart gadgets. But its subtext is all about Google versus Amazon.
Both companies usually shun conventions like CES, preferring to debut gadgets at their own press events. But these tech giants have built an imposing presence here this year as they work to weave their voice-operated digital assistants more deeply into our personal lives.
Google has plastered digital billboards and the Las Vegas Monorail with the “Hey Google” wake-up command. It's announced a range of new gadgets featuring its assistant on everything from smart displays to pressure cookers. And it's sent out the clowns – a jumpsuitwearing army of advertising associates wearing brightly colored Converse sneakers and hovering around partner firms' booths to explain how Google's technology works.
Amazon, which grabbed an early lead in this market, opted for a more subtle approach. Instead of an advertising blitz, its Alexa digital assistant has merely been popping up regularly in “smart” products across the convention – everything from mirrors and toilets to headphones and car dashboards.
Executives from both companies have also been turning up at press conferences held by other companies such as Panasonic, LG and Toyota. “What we're seeing is heavy competition between all the personal assistants,” says Gartner analyst Brian Blau.
The two companies – and to a lesser extent, Apple, with Siri, and Microsoft, with Cortana – are waging a fierce struggle to establish their assistants as de facto standards for a new generation of voice-controlled devices. It's similar in some respects to the decade-old battle between the iPhone and Google's Android system in smartphones, or to the much older fight between Apple's Mac computers and Microsoft's Windows PCs.
Both companies see the competition in existential terms. Getting shut out of voice devices could imperil Google's lucrative digital-advertising business, the source of its financial strength. Amazon, meanwhile, wants to ensure that its customers can directly access its “everything store” in contrast to now, when they mostly shop via devices and software systems controlled by Amazon's rivals.
For consumers, meanwhile, the spread of these assistants offers new convenience in the form of an ever-present digital concierge. But there could also be some uneasiness about revealing even more about their habits, preferences and routines to distant computers that are always listening for their commands.
In a video presentation by LG, one consumer cooks while reading a recipe from the smart screen of the company's voice-activated robot CLOi. Another prepares to embark on a vacation and shuts off her lights by saying, “Hey, Google, I'm leaving.”
Google said this week it's integrating its voice assistant to allow remote control of some settings in Kia and Fiat Chrysler vehicles, while Toyota announced a similar arrangement with Amazon that enables drivers to ask Alexa turn the heat up at home before they arrive.
But these smart products can – and sometimes do – support multiple assistants. Toyota Connected CEO Zack Hicks told reporters that “we're not exclusive” with Amazon, and that there's nothing limiting Amazon from partnering with others.
General Electric is showing off a suite of smart kitchen gizmos that connect its “Geneva” voice assistant to those of Amazon and Google. For example, you can preheat your oven by saying, “Alexa, tell Geneva to preheat the upper oven to 350.” China's Baidu on Monday announced it was integrating its voice assistant into a lamp speaker and dome ceiling lights.