For years, the Amazon Echo led the smart speaker market with hardly any competition in its way. But then the Google Home was announced some seven months ago and critics thought that maybe their industry would get a little tougher. However, recent reports indicate that appeal of the newer player was short-lived and over-hyped.
As noted by Android Police, Google Home is not a bad device. The hype was there for a reason and that is that the product has a lot of potentials. However, at this point, its Google Assistant is in a fragmented state. The AI virtually cannot compete with the same found on current smartphones.
In a video posted by the publication, an individual asks Google Home to list down a reminder. However, the Assistant notifies him that the feature is currently not in its list of skills. Likewise, the person requests the same of his Google-powered smartphone and the task is painless and hassle free.
Google Home also had a tough time last week, when users claimed that ads were being announced by the device. "By the way, Disney's live action ‘Beauty and the Beast' opens today," it said. Assistant then went on to describe a few differences from the animation and the live action film. Several users went to their social media accounts to complain of the unwelcome advertisement.
But as Google told The Verge, it was not intended to be an ad. Apparently, the company was trying out a new feature that was called My Day, wherein Google Home shares some timely content. The company explained that it is trying out different projects to make the entire experience more meaningful to users. It then admitted that it could have done better and the ads have since been taken down.
Google Home has a long way to go in the market if it wants sustainable success. Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo arguably has had more time to experiment in the market, but that cannot be seen as an excuse. If the search engine giant is looking for a long-term success route, it will need to clean up its act soon.
