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Baidu overtakes Google in global smart speaker market
Chinese search giant Baidu is now the world's second biggest vendor of smart speakers, according to a new report from Canalys. The research firm says Baidu overtook Google to capture 17.3 percent of the global market with 4.5 million shipments in the second quarter of 2019, representing staggering year-on-year growth of 3,700 percent. Amazon remains the overall leader with more than 25 percent share of the market and 6.6 million shipments.
Baidu's AI speakers run on an AI platform called DuerOS. The company initially targeted the high end of the market with the Teenage Engineering-designed Raven H speaker, but that product apparently sold poorly. More recently, Baidu has pushed sales of much less expensive models, with the basic Xiaodu speaker selling for as low as 89 yuan (~$12). Baidu overtook previous domestic leader Alibaba in the first quarter of this year in China, according to Canalys.
But the company has faced some trouble lately:
Baidu has lost over $60 billion in value since its peak — now earnings are expected to fall further
TikTok's Parent Pushes Into Search Business in Threat to Baidu
Baidu is facing an unlikely challenger in China's search market — TikTok owner ByteDance
Baidu: 'China's Google' Is Not Done Yet
Related: Baidu Launches 'AI-powered Digital Assistant' Duer to Take On Google Now, Siri
Amazon Dominates Voice-Controlled Speaker Market
Alibaba Challenges Google, Amazon With New Echo-Like Device
Baidu, "China's Google", Shows First Loss
Google Will Give 100,000 Home Minis to People With Paralysis
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 26 2019, @08:54PM (2 children)
Honestly: we've got three lamps in the living room, one on either side of the couch and one across the room on the piano, and it would take all of 30 seconds to walk around the room and get to the switches to switch them off - plus a pretty deep lean over the sofa to reach one of them, or... "Hey Google, living room lights off" from anywhere the thing can hear you. I thought we didn't need a relay on the lamp that's right by the stairs, easily switched, but as long as the other two are on relays...
For the low voltage outside lights, those are switched by relays in the garage and under the stairs - $10 for a WiFi relay, whereas installation of a "real" switch anywhere I could reach it inside the house would be over $100 (worth of my labor, or anyone else's) for the under-stairs location, and just impractical for the one in the garage. Same deal: voice command for on/off, plus you can set automatic timers.
Am I crushed when the system is down for whatever reason? Not at all... I don't think I'd trust it with anything critical, but it is convenient.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Snow on Monday August 26 2019, @09:08PM (1 child)
Ahh, I never thought about lamps. That makes sense.
Also, the outdoor lighting sounds cool. Maybe I'll try something similar out next spring.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 26 2019, @09:25PM
When the school bus arrives at 5:30AM, the outdoor lights aren't just cool...
🌻🌻 [google.com]