Here's how Google's approach to its smart speaker differs from Amazon (GOOGL, GOOG)

Voice assistant accuracy

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Google announced a pair of new smart speakers and added a number of new capabilities for its smart home ecosystem, setting forward its vision for the connected home and the role of the voice assistant in it.

The search giant is taking a markedly different approach to the place of the voice assistant in the home than current leader Amazon, setting up a test of competing models as new devices from both come to market in time for the holiday season.

Here are the important notes from the Home portion of Google’s event:

It introduced the Google Home Mini. A smaller version of its Google Home smart speaker, the device is meant to compete directly with Amazon’s Echo Dot. The $49 smart speaker is a fabric covered, hockey-puck-sized device that houses Google’s Assistant and can respond to queries or play back audio.
And it launched the Google Home Max. This premium smart speaker is more likely to compete with Apple’s forthcoming HomePod than any of Amazon’s products. That's because the device, which will sell for $399 starting in December, is designed for high-quality audio output. It will use the built-in microphones paired with Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze music that’s played and optimize sound based on positioning in a room along with factors like time of day and ambient noise.
Google also highlighted a number of new smart home integrations, especially with Alphabet-owned Nest. Consumers will be able to use any Google Home device to display footage from a Nestcam security camera on a television through a Google Chromecast device. The company is also incorporating what it dubbed “routines” into Assistant, so people can combine multiple commands into one, removing a pain point with smart home devices.

Google seems to be taking a software-first approach to the smart speaker, offering increased capabilities through the Assistant itself rather than based on the speaker hardware. This stands in stark contrast to Amazon, which is focused on hardware and announced a slew of new Echo devices at its event last week in an attempt to offer a device for most of the purposes a consumer could think up.

Google’s AI is already better at understanding and interpreting voice commands and queries than Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s event emphasized the importance of improving natural language processing and voice recognition with its voice assistant, rather than complicating its ecosystem with an entirely new interface — it notably did not make any announcements regarding the rumored “Manhattan” screen-equipped smart speaker. Though screens could be the killer feature on a smart speaker, if Google can leverage the screens already around people’s homes, it could get the upper hand in the market based on a combination of low cost of entry, widespread familiarity, and smarter, more capable software and AI.

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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