Bottom Line: The smart speaker wars have been won by Amazon and it’s Alexa digital assistant up to this point. Less than a month ago I shared these highlights...
35% of all homes have a smart speaker
67% of all smart speakers are Amazon’s & 29% is Google’s
In technology, we’ve come to learn a few trends. It changes fast and being first isn’t always best in the long run. For now, regardless of which smart speaker you’re using, you’re probably happy with it. Loop Ventures research has shown that user satisfaction averages 89% with smart speakers generally. Now that we’re getting to critical mass with the products, the question is increasingly becoming about what differentiates the experience. Google just added a new dynamic that could be a game changer for Google Home and the industry generally. They’ve created the first multi-lingual smart speaker.
As of Friday, all Google Home speakers now have the ability to interpret two languages simultaneously. This is obviously great for bilingual households but also for people who simply want to practice a second language. According to the Census Bureau, 20% of all households are bilingual – jumping to 62% for Hispanic households. This should obviously be a huge help to many households in South Florida. Google also said they’re working to add the ability to use up to four languages simultaneously, so this is just the first step down this linguistic path, for Google and a real point of differentiation if you’ve been wondering about which one to buy.