Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
What can such a home assistant do that I cannot already do now, in one way or another? I can find information on the internet using one of several devices I have (switching internet access on at the time I need it), and I can control anything in my home, should I wish to, using home automation and/or remote controls.
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Your choice. Your circumstances.
That does not necessarily apply to others.
I don't have an Echo myself and I don't see myself getting one in the immediate future. But I do understand why some people (a lot of people, in fact) can and do derive value from internet-connected devices.
At a minimum, connected devices extend a person's presence beyond their physical reach. Not just when they're in the house but also when they are outside.
As for the cloud-based connectivity, well, a lot of the "magic" in these devices *requires* computing power beyond what any reasonably priced computer can deliver today or might deliver any time soon. Natural language processing requires massive amounts of data and massive computing power; until a new electronics breakthrough increases the power of consumer-grade computers this technology requires a data center at the back end. (Think of it as Revenge of the Mainframe)
That is the real reason Amazon was first and why Google followed and why Apple lags and likely will continue to lag: these are by nature cloud-based services and cloud services is one of Amazon's core strengths. It is also where Apple is weakest because of their focus on consumer electronics. They have a lot of work to do to catch up to the leaders on cloud capabilities.
Interestingly, one of the leaders in cloud computing, Microsoft, doesn't seem interested in consumer level cloud services beyond the entertainment arena (where they are already a giant: $15B a year in revenue, 100M+ devices sold) because, according to a recent interview with THE NIKKEI, they are focusing on selling their cloud tools and services to other companies looking to build their own cloud data centers and services. (Key word in this discussion: data. These are *not* old school "data" centers. These new services use BIG DATA as fuel.)
http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Comp...transformation
It's not that they don't see the value of connected devices and cloud services but rather they see *more* money in helping other companies get into the business.
So, yes, cloud services are the future and advanced gadgets will require internet connectivity to operate. That is the paradigm that will dominate, moving forward, at least until IBM and HP's (and maybe others') efforts in molecular circuit (or quantum) computers become affordable commercial products and we can start buying Personal DataCenters. (PDCs?) And that is not soon.
The kinds of computing services headed our way: so-called AI, conversational interfaces, vision-based systems (super-Kinects), robotics, etc, will all be cloud-based.
Echo is the Altair of the new age.
The harbinger of a true new paradigm for consumer electronics.
Things are about to go crazy. Yet again.
It's enough to make one start yelling at the kids to get off the lawn...
