About two months ago, Amazon launched 70 new products, all of which evoked memories of Alexa voice assistant.
One month ago, Google unveiled a countertop display that was labelled Home Hub which draws power from Google Assistant, its digital assistant.
As these firms go about their launching, Apple hasn’t been left out either. Within the last two months, it has had two hardware launches but none of these include smart technology. Further, the company hasn’t had suggested changes for Siri, its digital helper.
The truth of the matter is that Apple might have been a tech giant for some decades but it is not anywhere closer to reaching Google’s or Amazon’s level when it comes to smart home technology.
The inability to come up with one product during the pre-holiday launches did not just reinforce this point but also indicated that things could be worsening. As years pass by with the company failing to take any major step ahead, it risks being locked out of the ever growing and lucrative market.
According to Levin Michael, the co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, Apple doesn’t face any danger with regards to falling behind, in fact, they have already fallen far behind thanks to the inability of its HomePod to carve a considerable market share.
If the firm does not take the necessary steps to reinvent its smart home strategy, it risks losing out on the potentially profitable new source of income.
As Apple Siri lags behind, Google and Amazon are luring potential customers with world class inventions and outstanding Google and Alexa Assistant ecosystems. Apple’s continued lag behind these other tech giants could mean that its customers will be unable to get smart home assistants and be forced to use competitor’s platform.
The danger with doing so is that these third party platforms may fail to work well with MacBooks and iPhones.
As things currently stand, Apple is yet to loose. The smart home market is considerably young and fragmented at the moment. However, this window of opportunity is quickly closing.
Some experts believe that Apple is taking a different approach from one which is taken by Amazon and Google. However, there is a danger in that the longer they wait, the further their competitors make progress.
How Advanced Is Siri?
Mid-this year, Apple launched its first smart speaker, the HomePod powered by Siri. Customers expected to have this device by December just when the holiday shopping begins but it was delayed until February.
Amazon on the other hand introduced its Echo Speaker, powered by Alexa, in late 2014 and has progressed to dominate the market.
Google followed suit in late 2016 by introducing the Google Home Speaker which is powered by Google Assistant. Both Google and Amazon have made major steps in adding devices that can expand their smart-speaker worlds. These include products such as Amazon Echo Spot and Google Home Max.
The cheapest Amazon speaker, called Echo Dot goes for $50 while Google’s Home Mini is sold at the same price. This is in comparison to Apple’s HomePod that has a $349 price tag.
Apple only has the HomePod, which we must state that it wasn’t mentioned in the latest product launch events. Also, there is nothing from the firm which indicates plans to make major improvements to Siri.
As Amazon and Google set on a race to outdo each other through the introduction of new gadgets and features, Apple remains conspicuously silent. The firm’s limited number of smart home devices is equivalent to Siri’s limited capabilities and the smaller number of partners for smart home devices.
