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A comment on Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It. Parent comment

Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by athenot on Monday December 19, 2016 @02:18PM (#13214149)
The same criticism can be levied against keyboard-driven tools aimed at power users. That doesn't make the tool less useful, it just shifts its target audience.
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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by untog on Monday December 19, 2016 @02:48PM (#13214419)
Sure, but it does contradict any assertion calling it the "next big platform".
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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by vthallam on Monday December 19, 2016 @02:22PM (#13214197)
Exactly. The use cases and target audience are different. I use my echo dot for playing songs, switch off lights and add random alarm/timer etc. The future not might be voice only, but it will definitely voice intensive.
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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by Retric on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:15PM (#13214642)
"Big" only works if someone can make big money. It can't have advertising without becoming useless. So, Voice activated lights are "The Clapper 2.0" which was not a big deal last time around.

Sure, there is a niche for reordering products easily, but commodity voice tech is going to rapidly hit zero margins. Like those 10$ TV dongles that used to take a full PC.

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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by Spooky23 on Monday December 19, 2016 @05:36PM (#13215644)
The clapper was a huge product. Millions of units shipped, mostly for $30 1980s dollars at a high margin.
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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by Retric on Monday December 19, 2016 @07:39PM (#13216351)
"Millions" is not such a big deal. 10 Million of units shipped * 30$ ~= 300 million retail.

Google makes 330 million in profit every week.

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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by untog on Monday December 19, 2016 @07:56PM (#13216440)
Why does every business have to reach Google profit levels, though? A business that turns a healthy profit with low margins is a successful business.
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Re:Voice Is the Next Big Platform, and Alexa Will Own It by Spooky23 on Monday December 19, 2016 @07:50PM (#13216416)
Sure... but how much does Google Home make?
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