Apple’s Siri must quiet its competitors in voice wars
Tech leader pushes its digital assistant to catch up on innovation gains this year
“SILOS ANGELES ri, will you finally catch up to Amazon and Google this year? We’d like to believe she might say, “Yes ... Jefferson. I’ll have more accurate, chattier responses, and good news — I’ll be able to understand you much better, too.” Will this actually happen? Apple, which introduced the world to voice-activated computing in 2011 with the release of Siri, is feeling the heat.
The tech media has given raves to the superior results from Google’s Assistant, now available on the iPhone. It’s also been wowed by the constant drumbeat generated by Amazon for its Alexa assistant, coming to new speakers and other
OK Google. LisSAN FRANCIS CO ten up, Alexa. Siri may soon have a say in the future of smart speakers.
Amazon’s sleeper hit Echo and its challenger Google Home have claimed spots on countertops and nightstands across the USA. More and more people can’t stop talking to these voice-activated, artificially intelligent devices. And that poses a competitive threat to Apple. Without a speaker device of its own, the iPhone maker could see its relationship with loyal users begin to fray.
Apple is expected to unveil a Siri-controlled speaker, and it could take the wraps off as soon as Monday when the company kicks off its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose.
Even though it’s late to the smart-speaker craze, Apple’s beloved brand and considerable fan base could help it grab a sizable chunk of the growing market, analysts say.
Just ask consumers like Mike Julianelle, who’s already ready to trade in his Amazon Echo for one.
The 40-year-old blogger from Brooklyn says he got the Echo as a gift from his wife a year ago and uses it to check the weather or to ask random questions. On weekend mornings, he plays the Beatles or the Hamilton soundtrack for his 6-year-old.
But Julianelle says his is an Apple family with a big collection of iPhones, iPads and iPods. Most of his music library is on iTunes. The Echo and Google Home mostly don’t support services from Apple, and that’s frustrating, he says.
He says he believes an Apple smart speaker, with high-end sound quality and easy integration with other Apple devices and services such as Apple Music, will develop a following with people like him.
“People love Amazon, sure, but mostly for what it does, not what it is. I know people who will pounce on anything Apple puts out,” says Julianelle, who blogs at DadAndBuried.com. “They’re totally in the tank for the brand in a way few other tech brands can manage.”
Analysts say voice is the biggest shift in how we interact with devices since the smartphone. People are flocking to these voice-controlled speakers that play music, fetch the news, read an audio book, make a shopping list and answer homework questions. This year, 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant device at least once a month, according to research firm eMarketer. And that’s heating up the rivalry among the tech giants competing to get inside people’s homes.
“The hidden driver of the demand is that people understand that conversations could simplify their lives and they are desperate for something that solves every- day problems with a conversational interface,” says Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey.
According to Bloomberg News, Apple’s upcoming Siri-controlled speaker will provide a hub to control devices such as lights, door locks and window blinds with Apple’s HomeKit system. It’s also Apple’s bid to keep consumers from straying to other services, such as music offerings from Amazon Prime Music or Google Play. Apple declined to comment.
The stakes are high for Apple. Its years of iPhone-powered growth are waning: Last year it produced a string of quarterly sales drops as consumers held off buying new iPhones in huge markets like China. Its Apple services, powered by subscription payments for cloud storage and music, has picked up much of the slack. CEO Tim Cook expects service revenue to double by 2020 from last year’s $24 billion.
Gene Munster, managing partner at Loup Ventures, estimates that 10 million Echo and Google Home units have shipped so far. In order to be considered mainstream, they’d have to ship on the order of 500 million units, he says.
Apple is late, he says, “but the needle really hasn’t moved in this market.”
Still, it might not be that easy to separate even diehard Apple users from their Amazon Echo or Google Home.
Margaret Mariani, a 36-yearold consumer insights consultant from Tampa, says she owns an iPhone, iPads, a MacBook Air and two Apple TVs. But she’s sticking with Alexa. “I don’t think Siri has a chance of stealing me away,” says Mariani, who has had the Echo for about three years.
She’s interested in how Apple’s speaker will be different from the Echo and how much it will cost. But bottom line, she says, Alexa is her best friend who keeps her company in her home office and entertains her family.