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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
Hunter
Built in collaboration with Amazon, the elegantly designed Lenovo Smart Assistant recognizes users’ 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
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 😍
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
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.