AirPods 2, Echo and more: The next big thing is Audio
On this little Post I will share my thoughts on the new AirPods, Voice Assistants in general and why I think voice is getting more and more important for us.
Apple has just brought out the 2nd Version of their very popular AirPods. People love them. We already saw that with the first version. First everyone has laughed at them, now they’re hip as fuck. And with Version 2 they’re getting more useful than ever — thanks to the Voice Assistant Siri, which now gets activated by saying „Hey Siri“. Means: It is even simpler to get shit done by just saying it. You could go jogging with just your AirPods and your Apple Watch. And you would have access to an incredible amount of functions that a few years ago you only could use on a Smartphone.
You can set a timer, a reminder, skip the title, start a navigation, calling your boyfriend, ask how the weather is, how the Apple stock is doing right now and so much more. And there is more in the making.
I definitely think voice is the next big thing. We love to communicate through voice. And we just have to say: Do this, do that. And the shit gets done. Automatically. We don’t have to watch. We don’t have to click on things. The Assistant is saying us if we need an umbrella or which exact title is just playing on the radio.
So much things you could do
It is obviously not just Apples Siri. Google with its Assistant and Amazon with its Echo* (Alexa) maybe play an even bigger role in this game when it comes to functionality. According to a Bloomberg Business Article, there are round about 80K skills for Alexa. But they’re also saying, most of of them are not useful cause of Alexa still lacks must-have applications.
Anyway ordering some stuff by just saying it is my favorite. You say „Alexa, I need toothpaste“. And two days later there it ist. But this could, when you ask me, become an even bigger challenge for companies in the very near future. When you say „Toothpaste“ — which one will you get? Nothing will be worse than a costumer ordering just „a“ toothpaste instead of some specific one. Goal must be: „Alexa, order me some Colgate Toothpaste“. Same thing by ordering Pizza. Not some pizza. „I want a Pizza from PizzaHut“. Or media. „Read me the CNN headlines“ — that’s the way how it goes. In the world of voice a brand is more important than ever.
Faster way of communicating
I am really into voice. Some thoughts I’m just writing here I just have spoken into my Apple Watch which automatically transformed it into text — while driving. With this notes I am able to write this little text even faster. And that is also a big point. We can speak faster than write (at least for the most of us this is true). So we could communicate faster and more efficient, get more connected. All by our voice.
Another cool thing: we’re not far from where we just talk in our headphones (or device X) and summon our car. This can be a huge relief on large parking lots. Instead of search the car fully packed with bags in both hands, the car can drive to the supermarket entrance. Tesla has done and is doing incredible work with its Autopilot. We can actually grab this future.
Thanks for reading.
Jona Chow
And please, please, please: clap, share or comment. What do you say? Is voice the next big thing? I would love to hear your thoughts on this very exciting topic.
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