Eric Willis

Lenovo Smart Assistant - Amazon Echo competitor with Alexa inside

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Wei Wei
Out of curiosity, why would someone buy this instead of Echo?
Noah Huber-Feely
@windmaple The price is likely the primary draw is it is $50 cheaper, and it has the added boost of what many would consider to be better aesthetics.
Yvette Chua
@windmaple They also claim to have better speakers. The higher-end version of it is made in partnership with Harman Kardon speakers
Eric Willis
Built in collaboration with Amazon, the elegantly designed Lenovo Smart Assistant recognizes usersโ€™ voice commands and uses Alexa to conduct web searches, play music, create lists, provide calendar updates and much more.
Matt Silverman
From the Lenovo blog post: "We know that 65 percent of people around the world already use voice recognition technology on their phone, PC or tablet." Given that only 40% of the world has internet access, this statistic seems rather dubious...
Andrew Mutavdzija
@mattsilv Interesting. Is it an inartful attempt to say that 65% of people [with Internet access] use it? I don't know the stats, just asking!
Chris Messina
Top Hunter
Very curious the deal terms here. Why didn't they go with a neutral platform like Houndify? Is Amazon paying a referral for items purchased on Amazon through devices like this?
Andrew Mutavdzija
@chrismessina Interesting question. What would the implications be if Amazon was paying the referral? Also, do you know any similar devices that have used Houndify? I love Hound on iOS and have been wondering when I might find an Echo-like device that implements it.
Kelly Kuhn-Wallace
@chrismessina I suspect we'll see a flurry of devices like these. Lenovo (NOT a hot b2c brand) inherits consumer credibility & awareness from "Alexa inside" status. Amazon benefits from faster growth of the Alexa platform. The pared down price and designer-inspired hardware don't hurt the Alexa "I need branding" image either. (Am I curious about the terms? Yup. Price point remains low, so the bulk of the expense is in future years, tied to sales volume, or tied to digital product sales.)
Scott
@chrismessina I guess if they went with Hound, they'd have to convince developers to support yet another platform.
Gabriel Lewis
The black one looks pretty slick ๐Ÿ˜
Steve Harman
It does look a little bit like the end of a cigarette. Is there an option to have an orange glow at the top? ;-)
Jelle Van de Vliet
That looks like the body of an Amazon Echo bot with the bottom of a Google Home
Jon Price
it's all about the microphone array. did Lenovo license that from Amazon?
russell pitcher
Lenovo smart assistance looking exciting and impressive, and it is a very cool feature. Very curious the deal terms here. Very curious the deal terms here.