Google Home Fuels the Smart Home Voice Market

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1Q 2017 | IN-4403

Google launched Google Home in October 2016; aware that in order to compete against Amazon’s similar smart home devices, it would have to attract a large swath of partnerships quickly to its new voice control smart home device. In mid-December 2016, the company significantly announced support from 30 new companies, as well as extended support for third-party developers to integrate its offerings with Google Home and the Google Assistant platform that powers the device.

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Google Home Gains Partnership Momentum

NEWS


Google launched Google Home in October 2016; aware that in order to compete against Amazon’s similar smart home devices, it would have to attract a large swath of partnerships quickly to its new voice control smart home device. In mid-December 2016, the company significantly announced support from 30 new companies, as well as extended support for third-party developers to integrate its offerings with Google Home and the Google Assistant platform that powers the device.

Google Brings Application Developer Support for Home

IMPACT


The Google Home device is a Bluetooth speaker that brings voice control and interaction to the home environment. The device is remarkably similarin core function and appeal to the Amazon Echo, which launched nearly 2 years ahead of Google’s entry into the smart home voice-control front-end market.

Unsurprisingly, Amazon amassed a significant arsenal of partner support for its device ahead of Google’s entry into the market. In September 2016, Amazon announced that Alexa—the platform that powered the Echo and its sister devices the Dot and the Tab—supported 3000 "skills”, and that, that number increased by 300% in the preceding three months.

By contrast, at the launch, Google Home offered integration services to Google services such as Gmail, calendar, music, and Chromecast, as well as smart home plays Google’s Nest offerings, Samsung SmartThings, Philips Hue, and IFTTT (If This Then That). In December 2016, Google upped that significantly with more than 30 new companies and startups including Spotify, Product Hunt, Food Network, WebMD, and Domino’s Pizza now supporting Google Home actions—the equivalent to Alexa’s skills.

Driving much of that adoption will be the “Actions On Google” functionality that Google also launched in December 2016. This provides developers with the tools to integrate their devices and apps into the Google Assistant platform and determine how those commands are handled once the instruction or query is “heard” by the Google Home device. These conversation actions connect an end-user voice input with the correct service or app, and supports interactions between the assistant device and the third person service.

Plenty of Room for Competition

COMMENTARY


ABI Research stated its belief that voice control will be a significant boost to the uptake of smart home devices and systems. The entry of Google Home, alongside the Alexa family of devices, further fuels that growth. Moreover, there is every expectation that companies that supported integration with Alexa will move to also support Google Home. However, that is not to say that competition will not be fierce.

Google and Amazon come to the voice control market with different long-term strategies and differing capabilities to integrate their offerings with services and applications on other devices, and with varying partners. Google emphasized the ability of its Google Assistant voice platform to support a range of devices, not just Google Home, but its Pixel smartphones and the Google Allo app, as well. The company is likely to extend that to all Android, Android Wear, and Android Auto operating systems too, which suggests the complexity ahead for Samsung, as it uses Android in its key smartphone offerings but also its own smart home play with SmartThings and recently acquired its own voice platform technology with the acquisition of Viv. In addition, Apple continues without a dedicated smart home voice control device instead offering its Siri platform in its smartphones, tablets, and Apple TV devices. This strategy lacks the simplicity and ease of entry that the Home and Alexa devices offer to a market that is still finding its way in smart home services and device integration.

Google Home is off to a good start; while Amazon is the key competitor at present, this market remains one that is well-capable of supporting significant growth for both Amazon and Google alike, as both lay the key foundation for their place at the heart of smart homes of the future.

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Companies Mentioned