Strategy in TECH...
The latest data from market research firm Strategy Analytics shows that Amazon is still the king of the smart speaker market – selling more smart speakers than anyone else. But the data also showed something else rather surprising – Google has substantially closed the gap between it and Amazon, coming within about 5.5% of Amazon’s market share numbers in the all-important fourth quarter selling season.
Josh.ai announced this morning that it has partnered with Savant to bring their more intuitive voice command system to one of the leading control systems in custom integration. While there are many advantages to this partnership, a big one is bringing the seamless integration of voice commands to Savant’s renowned user-centric ‘scene’ feature.
New research from Nielsen reinforces an important point for those of us in the residential home entertainment systems – no matter what the platform, Americans have an ‘unwavering love for music.’ File this report in the “Good News” department.
TCL, a leading global TV brand out of China, launched several new A/V products at CES 2019, including new higher end 8K QLED¹ TVs with AI, a whole new range of headphone products, and new home theater soundbars. These products not only expand their assortment, they expand their market position with higher end solutions and advanced technologies.
We have followed Foxconn for years now, first picking up on them in 2012 when news had emerged that a significant Apple supplier was having problems with employees committing suicide – eventually forcing the company to install ‘suicide nets’ on their taller factories and offices to help thwart further suicide attempts. Foxconn has continued on to become one of Apple, Inc.’s largest iPhone supplier of parts and assembly.
CES 2019 is over the hump, closing tomorrow. But the top tech stories are pretty big and pretty clearly defined – and will be quite exciting, when they appear…someday. The top tech stories include – LG’s rollable, bendable OLED displays, Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G – the next generation wireless tech, 8K TVs, autonomous vehicles – both car and motorcycle, and Apple & Siri strike back.
As usual, 2019 kicks off in January with CES 2019 as the first event of the year. CES is the largest show in technology, showing a wide array of new technology products both real and unreal. An event that has steadily declined in significance for those of us in custom and commercial integration – in the past, CES illuminated brightly what was to come in tech that year. Now? Not so much…
A smart speaker that argues like family…virtual assistant devices that understand your mood at any moment you wish to speak with and use them – budding futurists are predicting these 2019 consumer technology trends and more as part of a new report from Ericsson’s ConsumerLab consumer research division. The new report, logically titled the 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2019 is based on the insights and predictions of 5, 097 global advanced internet users in metro markets that demographically represent nearly 34 million early technology adopters.
Most tech experts point to artificial intelligence (AI) as the NBT – the next big thing – in technology. Not only does this promise to create a huge market – but it is likely to be disruptive of many industries and looks to truly Change-the-World. With a prize this big, many are chasing that AI rabbit with the goal of dominating the future. Will the U.S. win the AI race?
James Loudspeaker, the innovative specialty manufacturer of custom-created loudspeakers targeted at the residential and commercial custom integration channel, announced that they will create, build, and stock a new soundbar product designed to be perfectly sized for increasingly popular larger TVs up to 75-inches. By keeping this new product in stock, integrators will have quick access to a more affordable pre-built solution…a win-win for the integrator and for their client.
