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posted by mrpg on Saturday June 30 2018, @04:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the ??? dept.

'OK Google, give everybody in America a free speaker'

Alphabet Inc. should give every household in America a free Google Home Mini smart speaker, a Morgan Stanley analyst suggested Thursday.

The speakers currently retail for $49 each, which would mean spending about $3.3 billion. Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak wrote Thursday that would be a "small price to pay" for Google-parent Alphabet. He estimated that the company could compensate for that cost about five times over through the operating profits it generates more generally from retail search over the next five years.

Nowak worries that Google is losing ground to Amazon.com Inc. when it comes to retail search queries, given that more purchases are being made through voice commands and Amazon is widely thought to have a lead on Google in terms of smart-speaker penetration. He projects that roughly 70% of households will have speakers by 2022, and that Amazon will have 1.3 times more speakers in homes than Google will at that point, absent any dramatic action.

Also at VentureBeat and CNBC.

Related: Amazon Dominates Voice-Controlled Speaker Market
Voice-Powered Smart Speakers to be in 55% of U.S. Homes by 2022
Bluetooth Hack Affects 20 Million Amazon Echo and Google Home Devices


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  • (Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday July 01 2018, @01:29PM

    by anubi (2828) on Sunday July 01 2018, @01:29PM (#700962) Journal

    Actually, if it has repurposeable parts, I may collect a few. Just like the CueCat that has already been mentioned several posts below me. If it has a reflashable processor, and I can get some specs on how to repurpose it, I will go for it... but to bring the thing into my house and plug it in... I had just as soon give my housekeys to someone I do not know.

    I even keep my phone powered down because all too often, I find the thing has turned itself on in the middle of the night and run its battery down. Why, I do not know. Probably the same reason my neighbor's garage door occasionally opens in the middle of the night... noise - interpreted as a command - is my best guess.

    If someone did turn it on for snooping, there is little of interest for them... the inside of my pocket isn't very interesting. Nor do I do any important business deals. Now, if I ever did things where an eavesdropper could profit handsomely from monitoring some of my doings, I would don my tinfoil hat and make a metal tin to keep my phone in to act as a faraday shield.

    I've already seen enough ( from the old Cheaters Spy Shop and the like ) that the same technologies used for catching cheating spouses may also be used to eavesdrop on business deals, like how much they are going to bid on a contract. That information may be worth enough to bug the guy's phone for it... especially knowing even if the bugee finds out he's been bugged, his info went to an untraceable phone.

    --
    "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]