Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
However, using gadgets to get tasks done that you *should* be able to do yourself is stupidity.
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Do you get up from the couch/sofa/chair everytime you want to switch channels on your tv?
Again, tastes vary.
Convenience matters. Convenience is as much a product as anything else. In fact, convenience is the principal reason Amazon dominates the ebook marketplace in those markets where ebooks have broken out into the mainstream. The convenience of buying direct from the reader, of downloading directly to the reader, no PC required, was key when no other reader could do it. If convenience didn't matter, Whispersync wouldn't be the key to Kindle's ascendancy that it proved to be. Just ask Sony.
But this is not about specifics; just the principle that people will pay for as much convenience as they can afford. If efficiency and self suffiency were all that matters everybody would raise chickens and have rooftop gardens and collect rainwater atop their 30 square meter (900 square feet) micro home.
And that is without factoring in the people to whom Echo is no convenience but a godsend that gives them a measure of control over their environment because they don't have the mobility to do it themselves.
Now, maybe its value added features will migrate to other products (very likely) and maybe one of the other products will supercede the cloud speaker model as the preferred way of delivering those features. Maybe the category will eventually die. All that happened to PDAs. But PDAs were never a fad and neither are cloud assisted speakers.
No product fits the needs of everybody.
All a product needs to do is fit the needs of enough people to justify its existence. Echo passed that test with flying colors and then some. Which is why we're seeing follow-ups like Tap and Dot and me-too imitators. There is a real market for it. It's not going away just yet.
Now, if you want a candidate for a real fad, look to the boom in adult coloring books.
