Canalys released its latest cloud infrastructure spending numbers for China today, and it's all trending upward. For starters, the market reached $2.9 billion for the quarter, an increase of 60.8%. China now accounts for 10.4% of worldwide cloud spending, meaning its second only to the US in overall spending. That is pretty amazing given that China was late in coming to the cloud, but also not surprising given the sheer size of the overall potential market. Once it got going, it was bound to gain momentum simply because of that size.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. LAS VEGAS – The Google team is seemingly everywhere at CES 2019, both in signage at the main convention center, ("Hey Google"), a large booth presence and hundreds of people dressed in white "Hey Google" jumpsuits, topped off with matching "Hey Google" beanies. Arch-rival Amazon, on the other hand, has a small, understated ballroom at the lower trafficked Sands Convention Expo, showcasing a potpourri of products, from Amazon and other vendors, that use the Alexa voice commands. Staffers are adorned in blue Alexa sports shirts. On the eve of the show, the companies threw down the gauntlet: Amazon Echo speakers and third-party vendors using the system have sold over 100 million units, Amazon said.

More units of the Google Home sold in the second quarter than Amazon's Echo. Alexa, have you ceded the market to Google? Let's dive into the number and find out. According to the research firm Canalys, Google sold 5.4 million Google Home speakers in the quarter, compared to 4.1 million for Echo. It's the second quarter in a row that Echo took a backseat to Google.

It's easy to imagine a world in which "Alexa" is synonymous with talking computers, or Echo with smart speakers--just as Kleenex is synonymous with facial tissue, Xerox with copy machines, or Google with online search. They need a better name.) That's almost the world we live in today, thanks to the dramatic early success of Amazon's pioneering smart speaker and the surprisingly capable digital assistant that animates it. It's true that voice-powered smart speakers are on the path to ubiquity: Analysts predict that most U.S. households will eventually have one. But at a time when sales are booming around the world, it's becoming clear that Amazon's first-mover advantage wasn't built to last.

Mr. Giannandrea assumes control of Siri as it tries to fend off rising competition from rivals such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google Assistant and Amazon.com Those voice assistants have outperformed Apple's product in independent tests on its ability to accurately answer questions, forcing the iPhone maker to play catch up in a category it pioneered. Apple officially shifted responsibility for Siri to software chief Craig Federighi last September. It had been overseen by senior vice president Eddy Cue since 2012. Voice-driven virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa, powered by artificial-intelligence technology, are gaining popularity by making it simpler for people to perform computing tasks like searching for information, shopping, and switching on lights.

Amazon has led in smart speaker sales and adoption since it pioneered the category with the Echo in 2014. But for the first time, someone else has topped the smart speaker sales charts. According to data from technology and smartphone analysts with Canalys, Google beat out Amazon in first quarter smart speaker shipments this year. Google shipped 3.2 million Google Home and Home mini products in the first quarter of this year, while Amazon shipped only 2.8 million. Google has been inching closer to Amazon's sales numbers, largely aided by a gangbuster holiday season in which it grabbed 40 percent of U.S. smart speaker sales.

The battle now raging between the big technology companies for consumer cash is focused on the voice-controlled smart speaker. Having already conquered the pocket with the ubiquitous smartphone, big tech has been struggling to come up with the next must-have gadget that will open up a potentially lucrative new market – the home. A pilot light was lit when Amazon's Echo launched in 2014 and became a sleeper hit. Now the voice controlled smart speaker is rapidly becoming the next big thing, capable of answering questions, setting timers, playing music, controlling other devices about the home, or even potentially selling products. "The last 12 months have been explosive for smart speakers, which have surged into the mass market for two reasons. Firstly, smart speakers have become the central control hubs of the smart home ecosystem," said Ben Stanton, an analyst for Canalys.