THE BATTLE OF THE TITANS: AMAZON ECHO VS. GOOGLE NEST

A major battleground for the tech giants is being fought over smart home devices. Amazon's Echo was the first to hit the market in 2014. The smart speaker responds to voice commands and serves an ever-growing range of purposes, such as music streaming, news updates, Internet searches for information, grocery lists, joke telling, takeout orders from local restaurants, and answers to general questions. Furthermore, in homes with other smart features, Echo and its voice

personification, Alexa, allow users to control compatible lights, fans, thermostats, garage doors, sprinklers, and locks with simple voice commands. By 2017, Alexa even had the ability to call or send texts to the contacts in users' linked smartphones through Echo. However, using Amazon's Alexa requires very specific syntax for commands to be Understood.

Globally, the smart speaker market is projected to grow to $17.85 billion by [025, with a compound annual growth rate of 26 percent. As an early market entrant, Amazon has a leg up on the competition, with 70 percent market share. Google's competing Google Home device, now called Google Nest, did not even hit the shelves until April 2017. In some ways.

Google Nest is more advanced and "smarter" than Echo. For example, its web-browsing capabilities are more advanced because it relies on Google's stellar search engine, whereas Echo is limited to Wikipedia and Bing. Google Nest also can sync its audio playback with other devices and Google Cast speakers, providing better playback and the option to insert linked devices throughout the house, such that even customers with big homes can engage in constant interactions with the central device. If a user moves from the downstairs family room, where a Google Nest device is playing music, to the upstairs bedroom, as long as there is another device there, those elements sync, and the user does not miss a beat of the song Amazon's Echo can't do that.

Overall, though, the two devices have similar functionalities, with some notable differences in the quality of the services they provide. Perhaps the biggest difference is how "smart" the devices really are when it comes to responding to users' reguests In a study conducted by the digital agency 360, in which researchers asked each device a series of 3,000 questions, Google Nest was six times more likely to answer requests correctly than was Echo. Although they did not publish the questions they asked, the superiority of Google Nest likely stems from Google's access to its advanced search engine. In addition, Google Nest recognizes more colloquial command words. For example, if a consumer asks Google Nest what movies are playing at the nearby theatre, then asks how long it will take to get "there," Google Home understands that "there" refers to the theatre, whereas Echo needs the user to cite the specific theatre name or location.

Yet in other areas, Amazon's device takes the lead in loT. Echo is compatible with more smart devices, including about a half a dozen other smart home devices, whereas Google Home is compatible with only three. Regardless of which brand of smart device people use in their homes to control things like lights or appliances, they can likely use Echo to help control those operations. When it comes to e-commerce, Google cannot come close to comparing with Amazon for product searches or purchases. The vast customer insights maintained by Amazon help it power Echo, such that it is much better at enabling consumers to search for, find, and purchase the precise products they want at the very moment they realize they need something.

Among people who already use voice assistants such as Siri on their iPhones- Echo's head start means that they likely have already made their purchase, and they are no longer in the market that might be served by Google Nest. Moreover, many consumers who do not currently use voice assistants, do not seem interested in buying one for their homes. In spite of this lack of interest, the COVID-19 pandemic had a positive impact on sales as it accelerated the use of home voice controlled devices.

As the first to market, Amazon was able to set the price level for this type of device. Echo currently costs about $130.

Offshoots of the original Echo abound, with prices consistently dropping. The Echo Show 8 sells for about $90, Echo Flex is $20, Echo Auto is $30, Echo Dot is $40, and Echo Dot Kids Edition is $60. Echo Show 8 is also bundled and sold with the Ring Video Doorbell Pro for $289. When Google entered, it priced Google Nest at $130, but it currently sells for $100.60 Like Echo, Google now offers several models, including the Nest Mini for $70, the Google Nest Audio and the Google Nest Hub both for $100, and the Google Nest Hub Max for $300.

Even as this seeming head-to head competition persists and intensifies, other tech companies have ventured onto the battlefield. Apple introduced its smart speaker home device, HomePod, at $349 in January 2018. Along with the functions provided by Google Nest and Echo, Apple's entry features a special focus on music and sound quality. Even its name is evocative of the revolutionary Pod, which changed the way people listen to music. It has since discontinued the HomePod and introduced a HomePod Mini at $99. Still, with only a 5 percent share of the market, it will remain to be seen if devoted Apple customers will turn this tide.

Questions

1. Trace how you might go through the steps in the consumer decision process if you were thinking of buying a smart home device.
2. Identify the four determinant attributes that set apart the Amazon, Google, and Apple smart home devices. Use those attributes to develop a compensatory purchasing model similar to the one Based on your importance and performance ratings, which product would you buy?
3. Which device features examined in this chapter might have the greatest impact on consumers" propensity to buy one of these products?
4. After purchasing one of these products, why might you experience post-purchase cognitive dissonance? What might the seller do to help you resolve this dissonance?.