Smart Speakers and such
I'm torn on the latest trends in Smart tech. They have things I like and things I hate. The biggest thing I'm coming to integrate into my home is Smart Speakers. And the experience is generally good. But, as a developer I see a lot of problems still.
What I like is that these products are still at a point where it is more feasible to add features to an existing device than it is to try and sell a new one. As a result, the products which fall into this category are smarter today than they were when I bought them without me having to pay a cent. I can name examples from each of my smart purchases; August improved auto-unlock over several iterations. Google Wi-Fi regularly adds new functionality, in fact it just added some more stuff today, even if I won't use it (someone will). Hue added Sunrise and Sunset triggers natively in their app. And Smart Speakers keep gaining more and more skills.
Still, you shouldn't simply buy a Smart device because it COULD be updated to be useful to you. You should only buy these things if in their current iteration they do something you want and the value it brings to your life is exceeds the cost.
Back on topic though, I love seeing that the companies owning these devices are making ongoing investments in these products, rather than promoting a disposable culture. These devices aren't cheap, and there is no reason to be cycling through them every few years. In fact, the only appreciable upgrade to them would be in consolidating them. I would probably buy a Google Home at full price if it doubled as a Google Wi-Fi unit. In fact, I could probably be compelled to replace some of my existing units if this happened.
All of that being said though, we aren't really in a golden age of anything here. It feels like companies are only just starting to realize what the minimum viable product is for the niche smart devices to be successful. And that is what we're getting; the minimum value product.
I've said in the past, outside of smart phones, pretty much every other smart device is much more niche. In fact, just about everything is more niche than smart phones. So, how do you succeed? Well, it appears the business model working for smart speakers is to give up on planned obsolescence and make a product you can grow without the need to sell new hardware. Or at least, not sell new hardware on the same cycle as smart phones. This gives more time for a single piece of hardware to penetrate the market. Adding functionality over time allows the product to evolve without the massive expense and risk of launching a new product. It is also leading to broader integrations between smart products; One of the things I said in the past was needed for smart tech to succeed.
Make no mistake, there will be future iterations of smart speaker hardware. Echo's are already on Gen 2. But, the thing is, there is clearly no reason/need for the average person to upgrade from a Gen 1 device and in a niche market like this, that is super important.
All sounds good right? But what is missing to me is the developer story, openness and the personal and Line of Business uses. Sure, I can write an Alexa skill or even probably something that integrates with Google Assistant to some degree. But, these aren't really well devised solutions at the moment. It feels like they are internal SDKs which have been cleaned up a little and then tossed at the general public. As for openness, why do I still need a separate freakin' hub for every damn product line? And lastly, not every use case makes sense for publishing a skill to a store. Developers and people in general need the ability to write skills in a supportable way for personal and line of business use, which may include support for talking to local networks.
These things, are to me, still huge gaps. And while the average user is probably thinking these things are pointless to complain about, these are exactly the sorts of things which are required to attract a broad development audience and to truly blow the internet of things wide open and get a smart society going.
What I like is that these products are still at a point where it is more feasible to add features to an existing device than it is to try and sell a new one. As a result, the products which fall into this category are smarter today than they were when I bought them without me having to pay a cent. I can name examples from each of my smart purchases; August improved auto-unlock over several iterations. Google Wi-Fi regularly adds new functionality, in fact it just added some more stuff today, even if I won't use it (someone will). Hue added Sunrise and Sunset triggers natively in their app. And Smart Speakers keep gaining more and more skills.
Still, you shouldn't simply buy a Smart device because it COULD be updated to be useful to you. You should only buy these things if in their current iteration they do something you want and the value it brings to your life is exceeds the cost.
Back on topic though, I love seeing that the companies owning these devices are making ongoing investments in these products, rather than promoting a disposable culture. These devices aren't cheap, and there is no reason to be cycling through them every few years. In fact, the only appreciable upgrade to them would be in consolidating them. I would probably buy a Google Home at full price if it doubled as a Google Wi-Fi unit. In fact, I could probably be compelled to replace some of my existing units if this happened.
All of that being said though, we aren't really in a golden age of anything here. It feels like companies are only just starting to realize what the minimum viable product is for the niche smart devices to be successful. And that is what we're getting; the minimum value product.
I've said in the past, outside of smart phones, pretty much every other smart device is much more niche. In fact, just about everything is more niche than smart phones. So, how do you succeed? Well, it appears the business model working for smart speakers is to give up on planned obsolescence and make a product you can grow without the need to sell new hardware. Or at least, not sell new hardware on the same cycle as smart phones. This gives more time for a single piece of hardware to penetrate the market. Adding functionality over time allows the product to evolve without the massive expense and risk of launching a new product. It is also leading to broader integrations between smart products; One of the things I said in the past was needed for smart tech to succeed.
Make no mistake, there will be future iterations of smart speaker hardware. Echo's are already on Gen 2. But, the thing is, there is clearly no reason/need for the average person to upgrade from a Gen 1 device and in a niche market like this, that is super important.
All sounds good right? But what is missing to me is the developer story, openness and the personal and Line of Business uses. Sure, I can write an Alexa skill or even probably something that integrates with Google Assistant to some degree. But, these aren't really well devised solutions at the moment. It feels like they are internal SDKs which have been cleaned up a little and then tossed at the general public. As for openness, why do I still need a separate freakin' hub for every damn product line? And lastly, not every use case makes sense for publishing a skill to a store. Developers and people in general need the ability to write skills in a supportable way for personal and line of business use, which may include support for talking to local networks.
These things, are to me, still huge gaps. And while the average user is probably thinking these things are pointless to complain about, these are exactly the sorts of things which are required to attract a broad development audience and to truly blow the internet of things wide open and get a smart society going.
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