Apple set to expand Siri, taking different route from Amazon's Alexa

Apple is likely to declare its plans in the coming week to make its voice assistant, Siri work and assist a huge varied range of apps, in an attempt to counter the tough competition from the success of Amazon’s Alexa. But, according to engineers and industry insiders, rather than focusing on a large variety of apps, Apple Inc. is sticking to its tried and tested method of concentrating on small number of features and getting them right.

At present, Apple’s voice assistant Siri works with just six types of applications which are messaging and calling, photo searching, hailing a ride and sharing, making payments, fitness and auto infotainment systems. Apple is expected to add more to the mentioned categories at the company’s yearly developer conference which is to be held next week.

Some sources have also stated that Apple is likely to announce a hardware which will be on similar lines as Amazon’s Echo, a device for home that has seen a lot of sales recently. Apple, however, refused to comment on the same. Amazon’s Alexa currently handles 12,000 or so tasks. Even if the area of expertise is doubled, Siri will be no match for it. This difference reflects the difference in strategy between these two rival companies.

Apple bets that users will not use voice commands in a way similar to speaking to humans and with this it has limited Siri’s area of function so that it is efficient. Amazon, on the other hand, has not limited Alexa in any area, stating that voice assistants with a number of skills are the way to garner more sales, in spite of an occasional mistake or additional effort to use it. This shows that there is a head on clash in approach.

Differences in Function

An iPhone user can hire a ride by saying “Hey Siri, order a car for me” and Siri will open a car hiring service app and start booking your ride. Other than the standard home and music functions, Alexa needs a more specific command that is to-the-point.

For example, the process of hiring a car from Uber will start if you say “Alexa, ask Uber for a ride” but if you say “Alexa, order me an Uber”, Alexa will not do so because it cannot make the connection that opens the Uber skill. One can order food with the help of Alexa but not with Siri, because this is one of the many categories that Siri does not function in, yet.

An Apple spokesperson has stated that Siri’s expertise in this area was very limitedly tried but the outcome was largely positive. Amazon made a statement that their goal is to make the whole voice command and result experience to be very natural and as easy as possible with Alexa.

Side-Lines and Not the Main Focus

A venture capitalist with Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group, Matt McIlwain, said that Apple’s narrower focus could be a problem. If the categories are not expanded, it could create a problem for Siri’s sales, he said. Neither of the two, Alexa and Siri, are on a smooth path to gaining more finance. Because of the limitations, voice apps are just on the side-lines and not the main focus and once an economic model is developed, there will be a substantial rise in sales.

Amazon Extends Cloud Reach With Hardware

With just a couple of years Internet of Things has found a solid footing in the technology industry due to eager adoption by the consumers. Internet of Things was essentially an experimental initiative by the industry to get people interested in smart products apart from the Smartphone and computing devices. Amazon Web Services is an Amazon core cloud based wing which caters to the needs of the industry is storing and accessing data from anywhere at given point of time.

With the popularity and significant reach covered by the Internet of things devices in the recent past Amazon very well understand that in future the consumer’s computing will not be happening just in its data centers. We have more hundreds of millions of Internet of Things devices up and running around the world which collects user’s data and analyze on every given second.

Given this though Amazon has brought a suitable answer in the form a hardware named Snowball Edge which is portable and it will allow users not just store their data locally but also computes it run some tasks as per their need. A year Amazon brought Snowball which simply a storage only hardware but Edge happens to be an offshoot of the Snowball with enhanced capability.

What Snowball Edge brings to the table? 

The difference between the earlier hardware Snowball and current offering Softball Edge is very simple. Snowball was designed to help users to store data and send it over to the AWS data center for further uploading and analyzing while Edge will remain at the consumer’s establishment and it will like a local computing device as well as storage node.

Secondly Amazon has revealed a new hardware which has been made in close collaboration with Intel. This device is named AWS Greengrass powered by Intel chips and it runs on a unique software programming using Amazon’s Lambda tool.

More storage hardware will usher AWS growth & revenue

With the launch of this hardware it has been well noted that Amazon is looking forward to increase the flow of data as well as capability of the standalone device to the next level. In order to get more data and increase the flow of work it is necessary to get the data to the AWS data centers for valuable business insights which can help companies in improving their products and services. To this effect Amazon has brought a number of data migration tool which consists of reinvent—a big-rig truck for bringing data back to the AWS data center and a Sonwmobile—a highly shipping container which possess the ability to deliver 100 petabytes of data to the data centers.

It might appear absurd to use such devices and vehicles to deliver data from the source to the data center but it should be understood that moving such amount of data over any kind of network will require a lot of time (calculated in months).

Apple's Echo Rival Could See You With Built-In Camera

Apple’s Echo Featuring Camera/Facial Recognition Functionality

Apple is said to be working on an Amazon Echo rival which according to reports may feature a camera and facial recognition functionality. The device with the in-built camera would be capable of detecting who will be in the closeness of the speaker using facial recognition technology and automatically activates that individual’ preferences like choice of music and lighting.

The hardware would be released by the end of the year though it is likely to be made available in 2017. However, they have warned that Apple would change its plans to include a camera or may even scrap the device completely. Apple had refrained from commenting. Due to the Echo together with its built-in voice assistant known as Alexa, Amazon tends to play a vital role in the transition in the homes of people.

Apple finds itself behind even though it had launched Siri before the digital assistant had come in. Presently neither Echo nor Google’s recently proclaimed devices, Google Home, tend to have cameras. They are both voice-activated speakers which enables you to control the home appliances by loud communication commands.

Intelligent Cameras in Devices – Risky

Apple’s device also tends to obey voice commands via Siri, Putting intelligent cameras in devices seems to be risky for companies since it tends to raise questions regarding privacy. Intel intended to release a TV box with a camera though it ditched the plan for its first product.Intel had informed that it was owing to the cost as well as the time taken to build the device though the company also encountered backlash over concerns that the box would be watching you all the while. Intel eventually had sold the business, OnCue to Verizon which did away with the hardware in support of a streaming service known as Go90.

Supporters of smart cameras in devices, state that there is little privacy or security risk to consumers as long as the camera is kept turned off by default and consumers have the option to use it. Apple has been the leader in the drive for more security and privacy for its consumers and its combative battle with the FBI earlier in the year had drawn attention to the requirement of stronger security on devices. It is doubtful that Apple would include a camera in a smart home speaker unless it could also ensure the device is secure.

New Model of Apple TV Set Top Box – Built-in Mic/Speaker

Though the Independent had reported that the device would be Siri-based and would be a standalone device, another report later in the week claimed that the device would be coming to homes as a new model of the Apple TV set top box that would have a built-in mic and speaker.

But a main drawback to an Apple TV based Echo competitor would be the hard wired connection to a television set which would eradicate an attractive feature of the Echo, the facility of putting it anywhere in the house. Though the earlier reports had not revealed a possible delivery date for the device, Sources had indicated that it could probably be by the end of 2016 but 2017 would be a possibility.

EBook: monopolies cross

What a tangled situation for American justice! By launching a procedure for cartel against Apple and five publishers, the Justice Department puts his finger on an insoluble problem: if we look closer, it appears that justice will have to choose sides between two dominant positions opposite, on two different levels of the market.

Amazon Kindle has its tablet Fire and Kindle to $ 79

As predicted by the rumor, Amazon today introduced its first tablet, the Kindle Fire. It does not compete directly iPad, but rather is designed to compete with the Touch Nook Barnes & Noble: with a 7 "screen, and comes at $ 199. The firm of Jeff Bezos has also introduced a new Kindle , whose price is extremely aggressive. Kindle the Fire is first and foremost a Kindle tablet, more than a multimedia tablet: it has no photo sensor, no microphone, not even a 3G chip (but a WiFi chip anyway). These sacrifices are used to define the tablet at the same time they get the price down.

Amazon does not say, but the tablet has 8 GB of internal storage and a battery life of 8 hours. This is not so much to compete with the iPad reading lights that meet the supercharged as Nook Touch Barnes & Noble. Amazon's CEO believes that the success of the tablet will come from the strength of its ecosystem of content: Amazon is the only plan on rival Apple's (read: Amazon, the best enemy of Apple), the two companies are in light years from HP, RIM, and even Google. Amazon posed patiently his pawns in recent years, books of course (Kindle), but also music (Amazon MP3), movies, TV shows (Amazon Prime), applications (AppStore), and now magazines.

This content is the best argument Kindle Fire, which is also sold with a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, the premium service from Amazon that has a VOD system (11 000 movies and TV shows). Amazon takes a small size and close the book on 7 "(the Kindle has a screen with a diagonal 6"): The Kindle Fire weighing only 413 grams, one can easily hold it with one hand. With a dual-heart, she has access to all the services of Amazon, and will serve both as reading light viewer film or game support.Amazon uses a technology called Silk to optimize the content of Web pages served to Kindle Fire and accelerate the rendering and display, the pages are stored in cache on EC2 servers, optimized, and pushed to the shelves on demand. The JavaScript is still running locally, and the browser supports Flash (no Amazon boasted that matter). The load is increased.

By the way, Amazon opens the possibility of launching investigations behavioral data on the mass customer traffic Kindle Fire.Fire the Kindle uses the foundation for Android, which is completely obscured by Amazon as an interface: Google is not an ally here, but a competitor. The interface reminds a shelf, and mixing the various types of content - applications are included. The most frequently used are displayed on the first page, the largest elements of this first page as those recently used. No aspect of the software will remember the roots of OS used by Amazon. Competitor of the iPad, Kindle the Fire? Not sure. But the iPod touch him, could suffer: the devices are not directly competitive, but the price of Apple's PMP will now appear as too high. This concept device intermediate iPhone without a plan, iPad portable, will perhaps have to be redefined by the price or features. Kindle the Fire will be available November 15 and can already be pre-ordered. Beyond this shelf, Amazon has revised its range of screen reading lights eInk. Kindle The Kindle is the first touch touch land on which Jeff Bezos had never wanted to venture because of technical barriers (adding glare, loss of readability). Without a keyboard, it looks like the reading lights competing at Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Sony, and has a similar function: type in the middle of the screen to go to the menu on the left and right to turn the pages.

These areas can be customized (EasyReach system) for easy handling with one hand: we can minimize the area used to return a page back, rejecting the area to call the menu at the top of the screen, and allow a maximum of place to move to the area of ​​reading. The player interface and navigation is very similar to the application for iOS Kindle. Using the latest technology and a touch screen eInk infrared, the Kindle is proposed to touch $ 99 in WiFi, 3G model at $ 149 (available connection for life). To meet the reading lights cheapest, Amazon introduced a Kindle to $ 79, which is not touch and no longer has a near-useless keyboard of his predecessors.

This model, available now and 30% lighter than the previous model (170 g), just a minimal number of buttons. All these new models display advertisements on their screen saver, a system launched earlier this year and never interrupts the reading (read: $ 25 off the Kindle 3 against the pub). Without advertising, Kindle goes to $ 109, to touch the $ 139 Kindle and Kindle Touch 3G $ 189. Only the low-end Kindle can be ordered from France, the other remaining models currently US-only.

Kindle complete overview of 2011

Meanwhile the marketing of Kindle Kindle Touch and Fire, we could not resist, we bought the new Kindle entry. Here is a comprehensive ... At the multitouch keyboard Kindle 2010 seemed unnecessary and took too much room for the rest of the unit. So side by side, even if they have a screen the same size, the new Kindle is all pokey. It is also lighter since the passage loses 70 grams.

Amazon, The Best and Foremost Enemy of Apple Part.IV

Material on which Amazon released a very comfortable margin of 48%: for a little over three years, the bookseller hybrid business model to be closer to that of Apple. The next step, which should confirm this transition, the tablet will Kindle, announced by the rumor and, as it confirmed by Jeff Bezos. While Apple's closed ecosystem with software and services, Amazon goes in the opposite direction and will close with hardware ... Android. Amazon has not cluttered with the creation of an OS in a few months, it has privatized virtually a third OS to be able to offer almost a clean version.

Amazon was a partner in the first hour of Google: the couple face + iTunes iPhone, the firm of Mountain View has used Amazon as a content provider for Android Smartphones. Amazon MP3 application, installed on all or most Smartphones Android and not far from impossible to remove, serves as equivalent of the iTunes Store.

Amazon obviously has its own applications on Android, but the company goes further in recent months, it operates its own application store for Android. The Amazon AppStore, it is called, is a true rival to the Android Market: it has a mechanism of editorial control, offers a free daily application fee, and even allows testing applications directly into the browser through an Android emulator!

Amazon has enough weight to have managed to bend the AT & T, which ultimately allowed the installation of third-party shopping for Android users can download the Amazon AppStore. Google is certainly a well-known brand in the United States and elsewhere, but Amazon is less familiar and has the advantage of being established for a long time. Kindle said the company's presence in the material, while the family is eclipsed by Nexus brand Droid operator Verizon. At the selection on the eve of the holiday season, Amazon could buy up the ante with a shelf under a Kindle Android in which it is deeply integrated.

A tablet may be the best competitor of the iPad, but also, paradoxically, its greatest ally against the other tablets Android - found the game at three music stores. Amazon certainly seems to be the worst enemy of Apple...

Amazon, The Best and Foremost Enemy of Apple Part.III

With icloud, Apple may, however, go far beyond the Cloud Drive. Amazon is focusing effect on media content, where Apple offers various services in addition to "productivity" (email, calendars, contacts, files synchronization, etc). Amazon then simply create a digital record, while Apple was able to convince record labels and management companies of copyright to allow the download multiple purchases or duplication of an iTunes library.

Apple takes the advantage because she thought the solution in the cloud as an extension of its equipment, as part of a full circle closed ecosystem. Amazon also has a closed ecosystem: the Kindle (designed by Lab126 ... in Cupertino). It is difficult to measure the success of Kindle and its associated download platform, Amazon do not provide sales figures, but it is undeniable.

Kindle and iPod are similar: they have succeeded where others have failed with a formula not necessarily new, but distinctive hardware and an integrated software platform available at the right time (technological convergence and preparing the public for the idea). The iPod had a hard drive, the wheel and then iTunes FairPlay DRM, the Kindle screen eIink had its modern, its persistent and 3G as well as its free Kindle Store and a closed file format. In many ways, it has demonstrated the viability of the eBook.

Apple today hunting on the lands of the Amazon with iPad and iBookstore, as do other manufacturers, but from Amazon in this market is 90% (although it is in rapid decline and to fall to 70-75% by the end of the year). In the same way as iTunes, Safari or icloud is available on Windows, you can access the Kindle platform on many devices. Amazon has understood before others, and just as Apple, the central content at low prices and high volume ("set an aggressive price and go for volume" said Steve Jobs): the logical step after that 'we bought books on the Kindle Store, readable only through the application Kindle, is to buy a Kindle.

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Amazon, The Best and Foremost Enemy of Apple Part.II

Amazon's strategy could not be further from that of Apple, who swears by the gross margin, but the two companies come together on several issues, starting with the extreme loyalty of their customers. Better roads Amazon and Apple seem to be closer to the point of cross soon: as Apple has expanded the distribution and service (iTunes Store, App Store, icloud), Amazon’s has ventured into the field equipment (Kindle, a tablet soon). Soon, the two companies may well be in direct competition: each will have a complete ecosystem of distributing content to custom equipment designed and equipped with built-in software.

Amazon launched its music store in late 2007, more than four years after the opening of the iTunes Store. The lack of DRM, the highest quality and lower prices than iTunes Store helped catch up: Amazon has quickly become a viable number two, at least in the United States. The size of the catalogs of the two shops is now similar (14 to 16 million according to the counts): Amazon is characterized by regular lower prices, and generally a more flexible fee schedule, while Apple is known to afford some exclusives (the Beatles to name a few).

Jeff Bezos's company managed to consolidate its position as she was only 4% of purchases of digital music in the United States in early 2008, it now accounts for 11.6% of the market. This growth is currently not at the expense of iTunes, solid leader slight increase, reaching 70% market share. In a sense, Amazon helps strengthen Apple, eliminating weaker competitors such as Rhapsody, but Amazon is growing quickly: Apple may need to be wary.

Amazon's business practices are in fact just as formidable as in the early days. For the promotion of Amazon MP3 and its natural extension, the Cloud player, Jeff Bezos has not hesitated to sacrifice millions of dollars to provide music for song bread and gain new customers. Obviously the transaction cost as much as a traditional advertising campaign, with a different conversion rate.

(Cont.)

Amazon, The Best and Foremost Enemy of Apple Part.I

It is frequently contrasted with Apple to Microsoft, Apple and more recently in Google. Amazon is to forget: in many ways, the firm of Jeff Bezos is perhaps the most formidable competitor to Apple, the electronic book to digital music, sales of applications for sale of equipment.

Amazon-smile, The fictionalized story of Apple based much of its current image: the return of the prodigal son has helped to revive the phoenix from the ashes, to replay the scene of the Macintosh iPod, iPhone and iPad and iTunes in the background. Less well known is the story of Amazon, so it is no less exciting.

Founded in 1994 and launched in 1995, Amazon.com is designed as the "largest bookseller in the world" free from physical constraints, the site was ambitious to sell more books than all its competitors combined. Its founder, Jeff Bezos, quickly launched an ambitious acquisition policy, increasing the acquisition of electronic bookstores (Bookpages, future Telebook and Amazon UK, Amazon DE future, in 1998, Audible in 2000) and many and varied many Internet services (IMDb, Wise in 1998, Alexa in 1999, several management systems in 1999 and 2000).

Amazon's business model has long been atypical in the first version scribbled by Jeff Bezos, it was not about generating profits, but simply to attract capital (the company goes public in 1997) and grow fast enough to reach many markets. The competitive advantage allows it to keep prices low. The genius of Bezos was to take calculated risks: to provide the delivery is a dead loss, but can attracting customers and hope to sell enough to generate a high margin on volume. This set of communicating vessels is the trademark of Amazon.

After years of losses as investors impatient and have to find all the patches available to present the results at their best, the activity becomes profitable Amazon bookstore in mid-2000 before all the activities going on green end of 2001. The demonstration is striking: 80% of sales are made by regular customers, who then spend about € 30 a month on Amazon.

Consolidation accounting rules, limiting or omitting certain practices disguising costs, Amazon is in the red board? Bezos offers delivery and conceded large reductions: sales explode and losses are reduced by half. Amazon MP3 should be promoted and its companion Cloud Drive? Jeff Bezos's company made loss of $ 2.6 million in selling off the last album in fashion; But earned nearly half a million users.

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Amazon launches competitor to the Mac App Store

Amazon launches competitor to the Mac App Store. Like Downloads available from the Mac Store you can download the software for an apple branded computers. Among the applications available for sale can find Microsoft Office 2011, Toast, both absent for the moment the Mac App Store.

The software library includes 250 titles from Amazon is much less than that of Apple. It is more like that found in the Mac store shelves. Also on the menu: many games signed Feral Interactive, Aspyr, or Electronic Arts.


The user experience offered by Amazon is less polished than that suggested Apple. The company selling online provides a download manager. The user must take care against the facility. On the other hand, there is no mechanism for automatic updating like the Mac App Store.

As on the Mac App Store, you can re-download previously purchased software on the Mac Download Store. Amazon offers more flexibility for publishers; they can decide how many positions on which a license may be installed. To celebrate the promotion of its new service, Amazon is offering a coupon for $ 5 valid until June 1st.

For now, this service is available in the United States. It is in some sense for Amazon to becoming a major player in the world of digital music stores.