[Miscellany] Not smart; not oil; not AI

The connected home is not smart I only noticed this now; but, it seems that, when Google merged the Home and Nest divisions, it rebranded the connected home from ‘smart’ to ‘helpful’. The announcement said: Today, we’re committing to that goal by bringing the Home products under the Nest brand. Our first step as Google … Continue reading [Miscellany] Not smart; not oil; not AI

[Miscellany] Poorly placed advert, Guardian on Google Home, and reads

Poorly placed advert I spotted this advert on an in-flight magazine, aboard a plane. It was from Turkey's tourist board: Sounds like a great use of old and new technology: the company grabs the customer’s attention with a high impact photo on glossy paper; then, the customer uses their phone to scan the QR … Continue reading [Miscellany] Poorly placed advert, Guardian on Google Home, and reads

Monday Miscellany 6 May 19

The not-so-smart speaker Artificial intelligence is as biased as the data used to train it, and the coders programming it. Last week, I came across a simple exam of the latter: It turns out that, if you are in England and ask Google Home to “play the national anthem”, you get the US version. If … Continue reading Monday Miscellany 6 May 19

Seeing the smart speaker as a servant vs a master vs a partner – Why it matters

I just came across a very interesting study published in the Journal of Marketing Management, which examined how smart speaker users viewed their devices, and how that related to their experiences of using the device. The study was conducted by Fiona Schweitzer, Russell Belk, Werner Jordan and Melanie Ortner, and its title is “Servant, friend or master? … Continue reading Seeing the smart speaker as a servant vs a master vs a partner – Why it matters

Digital 2019 report: nearly four in ten internet users now using voice commands or voice search

DataReportal has released its annual report on the state of everything digital. It is a fantastic resource, with all sorts of statistics about Internet access and use across the world. You can access the data here, and you can read the analysis here. One aspect of the report that caught my eye was the data … Continue reading Digital 2019 report: nearly four in ten internet users now using voice commands or voice search

Smart speakers – consumer behaviour, industry structure, and implications for marketing

Smart speakers are very popular consumer electronic devices, and their penetration is not showing any signs of a slowdown. According to the analysts at Canalys, almost 100 million smart speakers will make their way to homes all over the world by the end of 2018, more than double the number in place at the end … Continue reading Smart speakers – consumer behaviour, industry structure, and implications for marketing

Consumer perceptions of surveillance activity of Alexa vs. Google Home vs. Siri

Voice assistants (aka smart speakers) are becoming increasingly popular. For instance, by the end of 2017, one in six US adults owned a smart speaker (e.g., Alexa or Google Home), a number that is expected to grow by 50% during 2018. This represents an adoption rate much faster than that for smartphones or the Internet. … Continue reading Consumer perceptions of surveillance activity of Alexa vs. Google Home vs. Siri