What is the Amazon Echo, anyway?
Amazon may not be winning in the smartphone market, but its new Amazon Echo household assistant is making waves in the digital assistant sphere.
Although the Echo was initially available by invitation only starting in late 2014, it was released to the public in July of last year.
The company鈥檚 invite-only Amazon Echo customers helped to create the present iteration of Amazon Echo, said Amazon Echo Vice President Greg Hart.
鈥淲e are grateful to our early customers for their incredible engagement and for providing us with invaluable feedback to help shape Echo as it evolves,鈥� Mr. Hart said in a . 鈥淸W]ith their help, we鈥檝e been able to add features like Audible, Pandora, home automation, sports scores, calendar, and more.鈥�
Simply put, the Echo is a small tower speaker. Place it in your living room and forget about it 鈥� until you want something, that is. Then, because the Echo is always on and responds to voice commands alone, all you have to do is speak to it.
The Echo performs many of the same functions as smartphones, including providing users with up to date traffic, weather, and news information. Echo users can also ask their devices to play music or update them on the outcome of last night鈥檚 game.
One thing Amazon鈥檚 Echo doesn鈥檛 do so well, though, is 聽alone. Other user complaints include the device鈥檚 occasional misinterpretation of commands or questions and a need for more features.聽
鈥淭he Echo is one of the most compelling cases I鈥檝e ever seen for the power of voice control,鈥� said The Verge鈥檚 David Pierce in a during its invitation only trial phase, 鈥渙f talking to our gadgets the way we talk to each other.鈥�
The Echo is just one part of Amazon鈥檚 smart home product lineup. Earlier this month, 海角大神 reported on the brain behind the Echo, named Alexa, and Amazon鈥檚 newest versions of the Echo, the Amazon Tap and the Echo Dot.
Alexa is a cloud-based voice service that can perform over 300 tasks. Amazon has since to other developers, who have used it to create services like Scout Alarm, which allows Alexa users to control home security systems by voice, and Toymail, which allows parents to send voice messages to children in other parts of the home.
鈥淎mazon is helping us create an even more simple and intuitive way to control your smart home 鈥� with your voice,鈥� said the CTO of Wink, Nathan Smith, in an , 鈥淏y integrating Alexa into our platform, customers will be able to manage their home 鈥� everything from turning on lights, locking doors, controlling temperature, and opening blinds 鈥� just by asking.鈥�
Smart home technology like Echo and its brain, Alexa, is attractive to young, high income people, according to a . Yet there are dependency drawbacks to this technology as well.聽
鈥淓cho is part of this new movement of smart technology,鈥� says psychologist and tech addiction expert Dr. Kimberley Young in a phone interview with 海角大神, 鈥渁nd our dependence on that technology grows depending on how much we use it.鈥�
New York Times reviewer Farhad Manjoo's device is almost a little haunting in that regard. According to Mr. Manjoo, "When Alexa reorders popcorn for you, or calls an Uber car for you, when your children start asking Alexa to add Popsicles to the grocery list, you start to want pretty much everything else in life to be Alexa-enabled, too."
Manjoo notes that there could also be inherent in this new technology. When you speak to the Echo, it stores information about you. Due to the device鈥檚 functions, that information could include shopping habits or more personal information. Although Amazon has included privacy protections in the Echo, reviewer Manjoo reminds readers that privacy is certainly something to consider with a device that can store so much personal information.
Yet despite the unease some consumers may feel when they contemplate their growing dependence on digital assistance, devices like the Echo are increasingly popular.
Figures from December 2015 show that although the Echo has company in the digital assistant market, including Google鈥檚 search engine and Apple鈥檚 ever-present Siri, it is by far the best liked. When asked, 67 percent of consumers say they 鈥渁dmire鈥� the Echo, compared to 45 percent enjoyed by Google Now and Siri.
With glowing reviews, Amazon hopes to continue its current success in the coming months.
鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to get Echo into the hands of even more customers and continue to invent new features and experiences,鈥� said Hart.
