20,000 AVS-enabled Devices

Leor Grebler
Sep 1, 2018 · 1 min read

News out of IFA in Berlin this week was that there were over 20,000 different devices that have had Alexa directly integrated into them, up from 4,000 in January. That’s a huge milestone and could mean Alexa dominance over Google Assistant for the foreseeable future.

It’s not clear what’s the breakdown of these devices. How many of them are speakers, TVs, infotainment systems, or other integrations. It’s also not clear the stage of the devices. Whether they are prototypes or devices that have already hit the market.

Amazon also announced 50,000 Skills (which might as well be 500,000 or 5,000,000). However, more endpoints for Alexa means that Skills can reach more people, meaning more of a revenue share from Amazon. Some ways that Alexa can grab new users:

  • Create a client for Windows and macOS that also has the ability to control local tasks.
  • Add Alexa Calling to third party devices
  • Allow for music access to more types of devices
  • Allow for self-certification of devices

There are still many places to integrate AI assistants and it’ll be interesting to see what designers come up with next.

Written by

Independent daily thoughts on all things future, voice technologies and AI. More at http://linkedin.com/in/grebler

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade