Google Positions Assistant At the Top of Its Hardware Pyramid
- Mehedi Hassan
- Jan 11, 2018
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This year’s CES is coming to an end. We got to see a lot of new laptops, monitors, gadgets, speakers, smart home devices, and much, much more this year at the event. Amazon’s Alexa has been all over CES this year, though — the personal assistant is coming to a bunch of new Windows 10 laptops, as well as all types of smart devices, including fridges, cars, and more.
Google’s Assistant also wasn’t too far behind Alexa, with the company launching a range of new smart displays and other devices powered by the Assistant. Alexa continued to have an edge over Assistant and other assistants this year at CES, and Google’s show–held in a tent outdoors–got ruined by unexpected rain in Las Vegas.
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Google, as one would expect, is quite worried about Amazon’s continued dominance in the market. Amazon had a head start over every other tech giant in the market with the launch of its Echo smart speaker in 2014, and Google has been playing catch-up ever since. This year, Google hopes to continue growing Assistant as it tries to take some market share away from Amazon; they also had advertisements all over Las Vegas too.
The company is reportedly working on a redesigned Google Store with Assistant-powered devices at the heart of its online platform, reports Bloomberg. The redesigned Google Store is part of the company’s “revamped” consumer push to take down Amazon’s assistant. Google’s long-term aim seems to be about making it possible for Assistant users to purchase things online, which remains a unique selling point for Amazon’s Alexa. The revamped store, slated for a February 2018 release, is going to sell Google’s own Home line of devices, as well as other devices powered by Assistant.
The revamped store could result in a serious push for Assistant if it features the majority of 1,500 smart devices from over 200 brands that support Assistant. Just last week, for example, Google launched a new directory that lists all 1 million actions supported by Assistant right now.
Getting Assistant on more devices will be the key for Google. Almost all of the company’s hardware last year was powered by Assistant, and as it continues to push the smart assistant, Assistant will likely take the front seat of the company’s hardware lineup for 2018.