“With the news that Alphabet’s Google is reportedly working on its own answer to Amazon’s surprise hit, the Echo, the digital assistant-powered device market is one that could become one of the next big battlegrounds for the technology world’s dominant companies,” Andrew Bulkeley writes for TheStreet.
“”For ad-based or commerce-based companies [such as] Google, Amazon and Facebook, it’s all about building more precise advertising profiles and the ability to serve up ads. This product segment bridges times when the users aren’t near their phones,’ wrote Patrick Moorhead, president of Moor Insights and Strategy, in an e-mail. “For Apple and Microsoft, who don’t make their money on ads, it’s about extending the reach of services,'” Bulkeley writes. “Apple practically invented the category when it first incorporated Siri into the iPhone in 2011. However, analysts say Apple may be the weakest player in the segment since it doesn’t allow outside access to its products and may not be as adept at leveraging customer information.”
“At least one high-profile startup is already advancing digital personal assistants by coupling them with artificial intelligence. The two developers of Apple’s Siri, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, have reeled in $30 million for their Viv Labs, according to Crunchbase, and have already turned down takeover offers,” Bulkeley writes. “Said high-performance computing expert Dan Olds in a phone interview… “‘Maybe Apple buys Viv.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A full third of the original Siri team left Apple to create an intelligent assistant that would do all of the things they weren’t allowed to do with Siri: Viv. If they’re interested Apple would likely need to throw crazy money at Kittlaus and Cheyer this time around.
SEE ALSO:
Why isn’t Apple’s Siri where ‘Viv’ is by now? – May 10, 2016
Meet Viv, the next-gen AI assistant, from the creators of Siri – May 9, 2016