Alexa loves you more
Alexa is fighting to get to your living room so you can spend more time together.
Amazon has unveiled its latest device - the Amazon TV set. It’s called the Fire TV Omni Series.
Does Amazon make the TV? Of course not. That's beside the point. It is a TV with Alexa built directly into it.
You could order it from Amazon, using your Amazon Prime subscription. If you do, that means that you already have Amazon Prime TV/Movie ready to be watched. Does it come preinstalled with your Netflix, YouTube, Disney+ and many more? Yes, it does. And to watch them, you can just say 'Alexa, play a movie for me.'
There are many other TV makers on the market. They may produce higher quality TV sets. But the threat to them is not the fact that Amazon has its own branded TV.
The threat is coming from the following question: “Alexa, what should I watch?”
That question makes all the content providers invisible and puts Amazon in charge of everything. Did you know that while you are watching this movie, Alexa can order food for you? Did you like the dress which you saw in that movie? Just say so. The place you saw in the movie? Alexa is already booking the flight and hotel there.
Consider the following statistics (for the US):
Percentage of households that possess at least one television: 99%
Number of TV sets in the average U.S. household: 2.24
Percentage of U.S. homes with three or more TV sets: 66%
Number of hours per day that TV is on in an average U.S. home: 6 hours, 47 minutes
Maybe you remember my past article about theAmazon Halo project, which among other things is supposed to analyze your voice for signs of your emotional state. If that’s the case, then Alexa can do it, too. Alexa can also recognize who's talking and start customizing the offers based on who's in the room with that TV.
You have no idea how much Alexa will care about you and your well being. Pretty soon you will forget about Siri, Google and Cortana (not that you ever knew what Cortana was - and why would you?).
In this context, you can see why Facebook is all about Virtual Reality (and why Mark Zuckeberg is trying to create the Metaverse). Everyone is fighting for your time and your attention.
True, you can get your Oculus Quest and run around in a simulated world, but there is nothing better after working hard all day than sitting down in front of the TV in the evening, with a beer and a bowl of chips, saying “Alexa, what should I watch?”
And that will be the recurrent pattern.