Amazon's Alexa and Echo were front and center at TechCrunch's Hackathon (AMZN)

Smart Home Devices

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TechCrunch hosted its Disrupt SF 2017 Hackathon this past weekend, offering developers prizes for the most useful and innovative software they could develop in a 24-hour period.

And one of the most in-focus devices and ecosystems was the Amazon Echo and its Alexa voice assistant. A number of entrants developed voice-based apps for Alexa that show the impact Amazon’s smart speaker is already having.

The winner was an entry called Alexa Shop Assist, which is meant to allow retailers to use devices like the Echo to direct customers to the product they’re looking for. This type of setup could allow a retailer to use smart speakers to reduce demands on staff or even deal with personnel shortages, with the device directing a customer to the proper aisle. The skill also analyzes the user’s voice to create a unique ID for that shopper, so that subsequent queries incorporate what the shopper has already told the smart speaker.
Another Alexa-based tool was Odis, which transforms the Echo into a music studio production assistant. A fairly simple tool, Odis allows a musician to use an Echo as a remote to prompt a computer to play a backing track and begin recording via the microphone and other input devices. This helps sync tracks, expediting the editing and production process.
A third piece of software developed for the Echo was MythQuiz, which turns a smart speaker into an oral flash card platform. The developers see the skill being used by tutors and schools and hope to partner with universities to develop question databases.

Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo are quickly moving into the mainstream of consumer consciousness, and developers are reacting to this shift. People want smart speakers because they allow them to use voice to interact with an assistant while going about other tasks — hands-free control was the top advantage of a smart speaker for 33% of respondents to an exclusive BI Intelligence survey. This is what’s driving developers to make software for these types of devices, which will in turn drive both consumer sales as well as new enterprise and retail uses like those created at TechCrunch’s event.

Smart speakers — Amazon's Echo, for example — are the latest device category poised to take a chunk of our increasingly digital lives. These devices are made primarily for the home and execute a user's voice commands via an integrated digital assistant. These digital assistants can play music, answer questions, and control other devices within a user's home, among other things.

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod.

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has put together a Smart Speaker report that analyzes the market potential of the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod. Using exclusive survey data, this report evaluates each device's potential for adoption based on four criteria: awareness, excitement, usefulness, and purchase intent. Finally, the report draws some inferences from our data about the direction the smart speaker market could take from here.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Amazon's new Echo Show is the big winner — it has mass-market appeal and looks like it will take off. The combination of usefulness and excitement will drive consumers to buy the Echo Show. The Echo Look, though, seems like it will struggle to attract that same level of interest.
Apple’s HomePod looks likely to find a place in the smart speaker market but won’t dominate its space like the iPhone or iPad did.
The smart speaker market will evolve rapidly in the next few years, with more devices featuring screens, a variety of more focused products emerging, and eventually, the voice assistant moving beyond the smart speaker.

In full, the report:

Showcases exclusive survey data on initial consumer reactions to the Echo Look, Echo Show, and HomePod.
Highlights the aims and strategies of major players in the smart speaker market.
Provides analysis on the direction this nascent market will take and the opportunity for companies considering a move into the space.

To get the full report, subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> Learn More Now

You can also purchase and download the full report from our research store.

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