Microsoft Joins the Home-Speaker Party With Invoke
October 20 2017 - 8:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Jay Greene
Microsoft Corp. is set to enter the fast-growing voice-enabled
speaker market on Sunday, nearly three years after rival Amazon.com
Inc. launched the pioneering Echo.
Microsoft's entry comes via a partner, Samsung Electronics Co.'s
Harman Kardon unit, whose Invoke speaker will use Microsoft's
Cortana digital assistant to take commands.
Similar to Amazon's original Echo, the Invoke is a Pringles
can-size speaker that can play music, check traffic and answer
questions about sports scores or historical facts.
Microsoft and Harman Kardon announced plans in May to launch the
Invoke, priced at $199. In August, Harman Kardon said it also would
launch the Allure, a voice-enabled speaker using Amazon's
Alexa.
Though Microsoft's arrival to the market comes years after
Amazon's, the company is betting the Invoke can draw customers in
with its connections to Microsoft products that have millions of
users, such as the Office productivity franchise and Skype
internet-calling.
Cortana, like Amazon's Alexa, will take commands from users.
Because of its integration with Office, Invoke users also will be
able to add appointments to their Outlook.com calendar and check
the time and location of their next meeting.
"We have to play to the strengths we have," said Andrew Shuman,
a Microsoft vice president who runs the Cortana engineering
team.
The Invoke, though, faces significant hurdles. Amazon has a huge
head start in the market and a bevy of voice-enabled speakers that
start at $50. It recently introduced a second-generation Echo,
priced at $100, and has expanded its offerings to include smaller
devices that connect to speaker systems, portable versions, and a
voice-enabled gadget with a screen.
Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit, which entered the home-speaker
market a year-and-a-half ago, has, like Amazon, recently refreshed
its lineup, with devices ranging from a large $400 speaker to a $50
gadget that is smaller than a doughnut. Apple Inc., meanwhile, is
preparing a $350 voice-enabled speaker, the Home Pod.
Microsoft's speaker isn't just late, said Carolina Milanesi, an
analyst with market-research firm Creative Strategies; it also
lacks meaningful differentiation.
The Invoke includes smart-home capabilities such as turning on
lights with voice commands, but so do its rivals, Ms. Milanesi
noted. And while it can make calls to phones using Skype, Amazon's
and Google's devices enable landline calling.
With some stuff that could have been a differentiator, they
missed the boat," Ms. Milanesi said.
Another hurdle for Invoke: One of the core uses of home-speaker
devices is to play music, often using each company's on-demand
service. But Microsoft earlier this month said it was discontinuing
the ability to stream, purchase, and download music from its Groove
Music app.
Invoke users who want to stream a specific song need a premium
account from Spotify AB. Meanwhile, popular music-streaming app
from Pandora Media Inc. won't be available on the Invoke at
launch.
The market for voice assistants -- and the
artificial-intelligence technology that powers them -- is too
important for Microsoft to miss, Ms. Milanesi said. She expects
Microsoft and its partners to continue to introduce new devices
that make use of it.
"Something else has to come, and they need to figure out what
that is," Ms. Milanesi said.
Microsoft's Mr. Shuman said taking Cortana outside of Windows
and putting it in other environments is important, and the Invoke
is only the beginning.
It is critical digital assistants "be where you are," Mr. Shuman
said, whether in a speaker or a home computer, or in a headset at
work. "Whatever the device is, we want Cortana available wherever
the user is."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 20, 2017 09:14 ET (13:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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