SHANGHAI -- China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Tuesday said its voice-controlled assistant will feature in local vehicles from Audi AG, Renault SA and Honda Motor Co Ltd, as the tech giant expands in artificial intelligence.
The Tmall Genie Auto smart speaker will allow drivers to use voice commands to, for instance, place orders on Alibaba's online retail platform and buy movie tickets, Alibaba said at the CES Asia 2019 technology trade show in Shanghai.
In the near future, the speaker will also allow drivers to monitor and control smart devices at houses equipped with a Tmall Genie-compatible device, Alibaba said in a joint statement with the three automakers, without specifying vehicle models.
"We are thrilled to partner with global, distinguished auto brands such as Audi, Renault and Honda," said Miffy Chen, general manager at Alibaba AI Labs. "Together, we can greatly enhance our in-car services and make driving experiences more intelligent and interconnected."
The Tmall Genie is akin to Amazon.com Inc's Echo. Alibaba launched the device in 2017 and released an auto version in April last year. Other automakers that have said they will install the device in their vehicles include BMW and Volvo Cars.
Amazon also has a vehicle version of its Echo, dubbed the Echo Auto, which it announced in September.
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WASHINGTON, United States - Google Home Mini has vaulted to the top spot in the global market for connected speakers, edging out a rival device from Amazon, a survey showed Wednesday.
The Strategy Analytics report for the 2nd quarter of 2018 showed the smallest device from Google captured 20 percent of the market with sales of 2.3 million.
That was slightly ahead of the Echo Dot, the similarly sized device from Amazon, with an 18 percent market share.
Amazon retained its overall lead with a combined market share of 30 percent for its Echo and Echo Dot, the research firm said, compared with 27 percent for Google's 2 speakers.
Alibaba's Tmall Genie sold in China was the 4th biggest seller in the survey with a 7 percent market share, the report showed.
Apple's HomePod was not among the top sellers but because of its high price tag, captured 16 percent of the revenue in the market, according to Strategy Analytics.
The research firm said the market was rapidly evolving with more manufacturers entering.
"The number of smart speaker models available worldwide has grown significantly over the last 12 months as vendors look to capitalize on the explosive market growth," said David Mercer, vice president at Strategy Analytics.
"Heavyweight brands such as Samsung and Bose are in the process of launching their first models, adding further credibility to the segment and giving consumers more options at the premium-end of the market."
A total of 11.7 million of the devices were sold in the 2nd quarter, with Google and Amazon making 4 of the top 5 devices and accounting for more than half of global sales.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Amazon on Wednesday announced that its digital assistant Alexa is heading for France in Echo voice-commanded speakers as of next week.
Software developers have created an array of "skills" for Alexa-infused devices tailored for French users, according to the US internet giant.
"Tens of millions of customers around the world are already using Alexa, and today we're excited to introduce Alexa to our customers in France," said Amazon Devices International vice president Jorrit Van der Meulen.
"In France, Alexa is French. We had to rethink the concept to honor French language and culture."
Echo devices with Alexa software compete against Google Home smart speakers, which became available in France last year, and with voice-activated devices from other makers including Apple.
Some analysts see the dawn of a "post-smartphone era" in which people take to interacting with computers simply by speaking.
"They're always ready, hands-free, and fast," Amazon said of its smart speakers in a release.
"Alexa is the brain behind Echo -- just ask, and she’ll answer questions, play music, read the news, set timers and alarms, check sports scores, control lights around your home, and much more."
Alexa is available in several countries outside the US, but the assistant has been operating primarily in English. The devices became available in Germany and Austria earlier this year.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Amazon on Wednesday promised to keep virtual assistant Alexa from spontaneously cackling, giving people eerie feelings about what the artificial intelligence might be plotting.
Users of smart speakers with Alexa assistant software have comically expressed their fears in recent weeks on Twitter, even posting video snippets of speakers infused with the software laughing menacingly for no apparent reason.
"If Alexa is laughing at you to your face, just imagine what it says about you behind your back," read a quip posted at Twitter by @mattblaze.
Darker posts wondered playfully whether fears about artificial intelligence turning on humans were coming real.
"Every time Alexa laughs, an angel dies," entrepreneur and innovator Elon Musk joked in a Twitter exchange on the development.
Tesla co-founder Musk is among high profile figures who have called for vigilance to ensure artificial intelligence doesn't turn on humans.
Amazon told AFP it looked into what was going on and found that sometimes Alexa mistakenly registers the phrase "Alexa laugh" and obeys.
"We are changing that phrase to be 'Alexa, can you laugh?' which is less likely to have false positives," an Amazon spokesperson told AFP.
And, Alexa is being modified to say "Sure, I can laugh," before cackling.
Streaming television titan Netflix took the opportunity to spotlight a Black Mirror dystopian series known for twisted, unanticipated consequences of new technologies.
"Just brainstorming some @blackmirror titles while Alexa laughs maniacally in the distance," read an @netflix tweet.
The tweet included a picture of a multi-story, modern book shop overlaid with "The Bookstore That Enslaved Humanity."
Amazon began as an online book seller.
One video of a cackling Alexa posted at Twitter on February 23 had logged more than a million views.
"I unplugged Alexa and she's still laughing," one Twitter user quipped.
Launched in 2014 by Amazon, the Alexa digital assistant has spread from the company's Echo voice-commanded speakers to millions of devices, even cars.
Alexa competes in the digital assistant market with offerings from tech titans including Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
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After missing the critical holiday shopping season, Apple Inc has jumped into the voice speaker wars with the HomePod smart speaker, a device that will use its Siri voice assistant and compete against offerings from Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google.
Apple said on Tuesday it would start taking online orders for its HomePod smart speaker on Friday in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, just over a month later than initially planned.
The $349 voice-controlled speaker, introduced in June and originally scheduled for a December release, can make music suggestions and adjust home temperatures. The speaker also will be able to send messages and play news updates from National Public Radio and CNN, Apple said in a release.
Analysts have debated the impact of the shipping delay on the HomePod's eventual success. Apple has forecast between $84 billion and $87 billion in revenue for the holiday - mostly driven by sales of its $999 iPhone X - so it is unlikely that missing a few weeks of sales of the HomePod will affect its financial results, Bob O'Donnell, founder of Technalysis Research, told Reuters in November.
The bigger danger for Apple, analysts said, is that consumers bought a rival speaker over the holiday season and have no immediate need for Apple's new product. Amazon and Google cut prices on their entry-level speakers over the holiday season in an aggressive push for market share, analysts said.
Apple is working to keep its Siri voice assistant relevant in the face of competition from Amazon's Alexa and Alphabet's Google Assistant, both of which are featured on smart speakers from those companies.
Apple also is counting on HomePod to boost subscriptions to Apple Music and block the rise of rival Spotify. The smart speakers from Google and Amazon let users give voice commands to play Spotify but Apple Music does not work on the rival devices.
Trip Miller, managing partner at Gullane Capital and an Apple investor, said he's concerned that Apple has focused the HomePod too narrowly on playing music with high quality sound. Rivals speakers like the Amazon Echo can be used for a wider variety of tasks, like ordering a pizza or summoning a car from ride-hailing services.
"I wonder if they're pigeonholing themselves a bit with this product, when a much broader offering has been proven by competitors to be pretty darn attractive," Miller said.
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SAN FRANCISCO - Ordering pizza from the sofa without lifting a finger has joined the list of modern-day conveniences thanks to a hot trend in voice-commanded smart speakers.
Amazon, Apple and Google are duking it out with devices designed to sit out of sight in homes, awaiting spoken commands to tend to tasks such as ordering goods, finding information, playing music, mapping routes, or reading email.
According to Gartner, the market for voice-activated speakers equipped with artificial intelligence and synced to the internet will grow to $3.52 billion in 2021 from $360 million in 2015.
While it is difficult to assess how many people use the devices to order online, industry analysts see it as a trend.
"Shopping through speakers is still an early adopter activity," said Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi.
"It's going to be slow. It's not going to be overnight."
Thanks to bargain prices for Amazon Echo devices in particular, smart speakers are becoming mainstream but consumers are not yet ready to fully trust the technology, Milanesi said.
Voice-controlled shopping, for now, involves mainly straight-forward, repeated buys such as laundry soap or dog treats, with people tending to want to actually see big-ticket items, especially if they involve style or color choices, she said.
MINIMAL EFFORT
Lifestyles revolving around smartphones, with less time spent in front of desktop or laptop computers, were expected to enhance the lure of shopping by voice.
A fan watching a sporting match on television can simply call out for their favorite pizza. Someone cooking can give an oral order to restock olive oil before they forget.
"Convenience is something that drives a lot of behavior," Milanesi said, noting that voice-commands even spare the trouble of tapping a screen to open an app.
"It's human behavior, the least amount of effort for the greatest reward."
Analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associated considered voice-shopping a major trend that has been embraced by distributors and technology firms, Amazon foremost among them.
Amazon launched its first Echo device in 2014 and has already sold millions of the smart speakers, according to industry trackers.
Echo devices are built with Alexa artificial intelligence for conversational style interactions.
Amazon dominates the smart speaker industry, with 70 percent of the market in the US while second-place Google Home has about 24 percent, according to eMarketer.
And with the recent acquisition of trendy Whole Foods organic supermarket chain, Amazon will enable Echo users to order groceries from those shops. It will also sell the smart speakers at Whole Foods, giving the online retailer real-world outlets.
Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana will start talking to each other in a first of its kind alliance of rival digital assistants, the companies said this week.
Echo device users will be able to ask Alexa to bring in Cortana as a "guest" to tend to tasks such as booking meetings or reading work email.
Meanwhile, those with devices powered by Windows 10 software will be able to have Cortana bring in Alexa for tasks such as controlling smart devices in homes or, of course, ordering items from Amazon.
SPOKEN LOYALTY
Apple this year unveiled a "HomePod" speaker set to begin shipping in December.
Not to be left behind, South Korean consumer electronics colossus Samsung recently announced it was working on a smart speaker.
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, and Google are teaming up in an attempt to challenge Amazon's growing dominance in online shopping.
The venture marries Google's hands-free voice activated Google Home software to Wal-Mart's vast network of US stores to allow customers to order groceries and other items to be home delivered through Google Express.
Voice-commanded shopping is a good way to enhance customer loyalty, and companies could eventually start pushing ads through smart speakers, according to analyst Gold.
"Attracting customers to their marketplaces is exactly what (companies) want," Gold said, warning that the trend could wind up better for businesses than for consumers as shopping gets concentrated, say at Amazon or Google Express.
"It's a continuous strategy."
Analyst Colin Sebastian of Baird expected voice shopping to bite into Google's revenue over time as voice interactions mean fewer online ads served up by the internet company.
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