Tuesday 23 May 2017

The Invoke Smart Speaker Brings Microsoft’s Cortana AI to Your Living Room

Invoke Smart Speaker 

Microsoft’s Cortana virtual assistant has already integrated seamlessly in Windows 10 and functions on iOS and Android. It is said that it will soon be showing up in cars too. In spite of it being good at work, good for play as well as has a good name, it tends to be left out of the voice assistant clique due to a smart speaker such as the Google Home or Amazon Echo.

These in-home devices have been the first area where most people tend to be using these assistant and Microsoft have been lagging behind till now. The latest Invoke speaker created by Harman Kardon seems to be similar like the Amazon Echo which is a tall cylindrical speaker having a blue light towards the top which tends to glow when the speaker listens to you.

It has the potential of controlling some of the smart-home devices such as name the members of One Direction – RIP, set reminders besides many other things Echo or Home could do. The Invoke, so far seems to have precisely the distinctive features like it can make as well as receive calls with Skype. Harman has made the Invoke’s sound quality – three tweeters, 360 degree sound with a Dalek-like design since it’s the best way of convincing users to purchase this device instead of an Echo.

Strategy of Microsoft 

For Microsoft, an in-home speaker seems to be particularly important since it had lost the race of smartphone and had not made any progress in the handsets for users other than the Cortana app which some would download and still less would use. However on the desktops, Windows seemed to have huge market share which millions of users by default utilised Cortana.

 In fact as per the latest numbers of Microsoft it had reached around 145 million. To make a lasting impression in the latest market, Microsoft required its virtual assistant to be all over inclusive on the devices which have not just been obtained from their IT department. Microsoft had reportedly intended to open up its Cortana Skills Kit with the Build conference enabling developers to build for its assistant. The entire strategy of Microsoft was to cover the earth with its software and users can look forward for more speakers in the near future.

Smart Speaker Market New

The market of the smart speaker tends to be new and the voice assistant powering them does not seem to be impeccable still. However Microsoft could be a bit late in this game. In a latest study Alexa has been projected as having 70.6% of the market for voice-assistant devices, putting up Microsoft in the small `other’ category.

 It is said that the Invoke would not be coming till this fall which could be some time where the users would have to wait with adequate time for Google, Amazon and others to make tremendous progress in this area. If Microsoft does not make haste and is unable to make Cortana worth the wait, then speakers such as the Invoke would be covering up the coveted area in your living room and filling up the space.

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