Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is getting ready push into the IoT market for the smart home in 2017 and Cortana is at the center of its plans. Last week, I wrote on how Microsoft’s Home Hub could threaten Amazon and Google in the smart home market. Amazon’s Alexa helped us to imagine a smart home manned by digital assistants with its Amazon Echo Bluetooth speaker. Google also expressed its interest in the market with Google Home.
However, I wrote that Microsoft’s Home Hub could sideline the forerunners from Amazon and Google because of the deep integration between Cortana and Windows 10. The smart home market is still at the critical point where it must break off from the early-adoption phase into the mass-adoption phase. Now, Microsoft has teased a standalone device (not the Home Hub) that could help the smart home segment of the IoT market take off.
Meet Microsoft’s Cortana-powered speaker from Harman Kardon
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is set to take a bigger market share in the smart home market in 2017 and the firm is counting an Amazon Echo rival to do the trick. The video below shows a speaker housing Cortana. Details about the speaker are still sketchy but we know that it is cylinder-shaped just like Amazon Echo. It takes voice commands from users to perform functions and it has blue light indicator to show when it is recognizes a command.
The similarities of Cortana speaker and Amazon Echo seem to end in the external features. To start with, Microsoft is working with Harman Kardon to build the speaker instead of building it in-house. Harman Kardon is a premium speaker brand and the firm says the alliance will give birth to a device in which “Premium Audio Meets Personal Assistant”.
The fact that Cortana has an audience of 145 million users on Windows 10 suggests that the Microsoft’s speaker might gain traction at a faster pace than rival products from Amazon and Google. Last month, Microsoft unveiled its Cortana SDK in a bid to make it easier for developers to create products embedded with Cortana. The firm is also looking forward to giving Cortana a home across Windows, iOS, Android, and Xbox among other platforms. Hence, Cortana could easily come from behind to take over the smart home market.
Here’s what Windows user think about a Cortana-powered speaker
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has built a reputation of building impressive devices – Surface Book line of Surface Pro, Surface Studio, and Surface Dial. Hence, the firm is coming to the smart home market with a decent amount of goodwill in the market. 0Comments on the teaser video about the Cortana-powered speaker show that 2017 can’t come soon enough for hopeful buyers of the device.
Some of the comments read ” I’m already lining up around the block to buy it. Nevermind that it’s Cortana, just the fact that it’s Harman/Kardon makes me want to have it. Do it already!
Nonetheless, Microsoft will need to make sure that its speaker does more than play music and set reminders. The speaker will be an instant hit if the firm can set up Cortana on the speaker to relate with PCs to provide a more natural way to use Home Hub without speaking into your computer. The firm also needs to work on improving Cortana’s contextual responses on the speaker since it won’t be able to open a browser on a speaker.
