I bought two Amazon Echo Dot’s this Christmas and set one of them up last night. It connected to my bluetooth speaker, but didn’t connect to my Amazon Fire Stick. I’m not sure if I haven’t been able to figure that out, or whether they don’t provide that connectivity. At this point, the Echo dot feels more gimmicky than a game changer. However, these are early days, and after I set up my second device upstairs, I’m looking forward to a more fully immersive experience.
The idea of a smart home is appealing, and the implementation is finally coming together. Early adopters are setting up smart homes in the Untied States and Europe. While I expect more difficulties here in Africa, I’ll certainly get some of the benefits from my devices. McKinsey recently released an infographic on smart homes. There are some 29 million connected homes in the United States alone. The industry is growing at 31%, and the devices are only getting better while the price points drop.
This all points to a big power play between Amazon and Google. If you want to know more about that, read this blog. The big companies are competing for the operating system of your home. The home is one of the few places consumers don’t always use your phone. It might be charging, or the consumer might be enjoying time with their family. So embedding technology around the consumer makes more sense because the consumer will interact with it. I’d ask Alexa what shows are playing at Kirstenbosch Gardens this weekend instead of pulling out my phone in front of my fiancé.
There are concerns about privacy, which are evident when connecting the dots between low security in the devices, Russian hackers, and the constant connectivity of the devices. The equivalence of KGB bugged rooms and a modern connected room is there. Ask the wall for a towel, and it will be delivered in either scenario.
Finally, I think these connected devices are held back by rights issues with the content providers. If I ask Alexa to put on the Washington Capitals game, I shouldn’t be denied because I’m in Cape Town. Alexa should make it happen. There’s more to it than what I know right now, so I’ll do some digging into why content is unevenly distributed around the world. At the end of the day, when I come home and ask Alexa to play some relaxing music, she listens. That’s all I want for now.