Family life will not be the same as the popularity of Amazon Echo's digital assistant Alexa comes face to face with Siri. The revolutionary gadget is selling so fast that even scientists have declared it a paradigm shift.
Amazon Echo and similar voice assistant gadgets could replace smartphones as the next generation of voice devices for digital communication in a person's family life, if not in his private moments. Amazon Echo's price is not out of the range at $179 but its benefits, such as hi-tech digital assistant Alexa, may give likes of iPhone's Siri a run for its money.
Professor Julie Kientz, from the University of Washington, works in Human Centered Design and Engineering department in Seattle. Kientz defines this newly rising demand of Amazon Echo devices as a definite paradigm shift.
"There is nothing personal or private about the Echo," USA Today quoted Julie Kientz as saying. So unlike smartphones that the users have to put against their cheeks, Amazon's new speaker is designed for a family life where all the members of a family can interact with it at the same time.
While smartphones have been consummate race horses when it comes to Internet of Things, Amazon Echo is a new contender but a formidable one. The cylindrical wireless speaker gadget with smart voice command integration was introduced back in 2015, not mustering ground-breaking sales, but a very high acclaim.
The idea behind Echo is to connect people, which smartphone do as well. However, smartphones break people from their surroundings and people in it including your family member. But Amazon's new internet-integrated smart speakers bring the people back to their live reality.
On the sales sheet, the demand has grown ridiculously so much so that last month CEO of the tech giant, Jeff Bezos, declared that Amazon can't keep up with it. Reportedly, Google is also building its own voice-activated digital assistant to one-up Echo's Alexa.
Furthermore, Sonos, a wireless audio device maker, pushes its voice control as a very important feature of their product. Samsung has also integrated voice command capabilities into some of its TV products. Apple iPhone's Siri has already made its way into Apple TV and Apple CarPlay, not only that, the team who created Siri has introduced Viv that will be available on all devices and services.
All of this is pointing towards a future, where digital assistants will slowly dominate all the spheres of technology all the way down to an individual's family life. And while Siri is still users favorite digital assistant, similar AI software from other tech companies is expected to spark a new championship in the digital race.
The co-founder of the digital assistant Siri, a familiar voice for iPhone users, introduced an artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant named Viv on Monday that would be available via any device and powered by every service.
Alexa can also be programmed to interact with Siri by developing "skills" which can even be developed by third-party developers. Alexa in this regard is very flexible, and the latest example came from The Verge that Echo can track your flights by interacting with Kayak.
Amazon Echo is really changing the family life of tech-savvy families and digital assistants like Apple's Siri and Viv, Google Voice Command, and Microsoft's Cortana will continue to tag along. The following video introduces amazing features of Amazon Echo.