Can Amazon's assistant stay on top? - BBC News

Amazon surprised everyone when, in late 2014, it unveiled a standalone digital assistant that was not only good, but blew away the competition in both quality and aesthetics. The Echo - a cylindrical speaker with microphone - now accounts for just over 70% of all digital assistant use in the US, leaving its nearest competitor, Google Home, well behind. It's an important new market, even if the idea of talking to an object in your home still comes uneasily to many of us. In a new report, Emarketer estimated 36 million Americans will use a voice-activated assistant at last once a month - an increase of 129% on this time last year. Amazon, as I mentioned, already has the lion's share.