Background

If you follow this blog, you know that our family straddles Apple, Google, and Amazon’s ecosystems. Our smartphones include iPhones and Android devices. All of our computers are Macs. We save our music in iTunes and our photographs in Apple Photos. I started out with an Amazon Echo during their pilot deployment. I frequently joke that, in perfect world, we would have a solution with Apple’s privacy and superior UX, Google’s general knowledge, and Amazon’s low prices.

When Google Home was released, we bought a number of Google Home speakers for our house for several reasons:

• compatibility with Google Cast initiated audio and video streaming, and
• Google Assistant’s superior Knowledge Graph (ability to respond to general questions)

Now, we have upgraded all of our smart speakers to Sonos Ones, Beams, and SUBs1 due to their sound quality and support for all three voice services.

The State of Smart Speakers

The Battle of Ecosystems

As of January 2018, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners’ estimates, there are 31 million Amazon Echo devices and 14 million Google Home units in U.S. homes. Google’s market share is increasing, with 40 percent of units in the U.S. sold during the holiday quarter.2 At launch, Google was far behind Amazon in terms of IoT hardware partners and skills. Alexa supports over 25,000 ‘skills’ today, Google has caught up with Amazon in terms of major IoT partners including August, Belkin Wemo, D-Link, Honeywell, IFTTT, Leviton, Lifx, LG, Logitech, Lutron, Nest, Philips, Samsung SmartThings, TP Link, and others.3

Amazon

In 2015, Amazon launched the Amazon Echo.4 Later in 2016, Amazon launched the Echo Dot, a hockey puck-sized microphone. In May 2017, Amazon introduced the Echo Show, with a 7-inch LCD screen. In September 2017, Amazon expanded their Alexa-enabled product line with six new hardware products. These include a smaller, cheaper Echo (the Amazon Tap), a larger Echo Plus with Zigbee support, and an Echo-enabled alarm clock.5

While these devices introduce innovative audio and video capabilities at low price points, Amazon’s devices aren’t focused on audio fidelity like Sonos’.6 Their primary function appears to be extending Amazon’s ecosystem including e-commerce and advertising.

Google

Google Home was introduced in late 2016. Software upgrades to Google Home in the past year include multi-user recognition, telephony, and intercom functionality. In the Fall of 2017, Google added the $49 Google Home Mini. In Winter, Google released the $399 Google Home Max device. In my opinion, the Max exists primarily as a competitive response to Apple’s HomePod and is not intended as a volume item or a revenue generator in its own right.7 Like Amazon, Google’s primary goal appears to be lowering the price of its speakers so that users will install multiple devices in their homes, generating more user data for Google’s artificial intelligence engine and its advertising business.

Apple

Apple started the voice-command based, virtual assistant revolution when it introduced Siri on the iPhone in iOS 5. Since then, Siri also was included in the iPad, Apple TV, and Mac product lines. Unfortunately, Siri’s capabilities have stagnated over the years.8 Apple’s related HomeKit device compatibility has been far more limited than Amazon or Google-enabled devices due to stringent certification requirements.

Apple introduced the HomePod, its voice-enabled speaker in February 2018. The HomePod is premium priced ($349), mid-sized speaker. Missing from Apple’s ecosystem are smaller “remote” speakers, whether by Apple or third-party hardware partners. More critically, HomePod only works with Apple products and services: iPhones, Apple TV, Apple Music, and iTunes/Airplay streams. A recent firmware update introduced Airplay 2, so HomePod now supports stereo pairs and multiroom audio. But, Siri is significantly more limited than Alexa or Google Assistant.9 For this reason, Apple highlights HomePod’s sound quality more so than Siri’s “smarts”.

From a strategic vantage, the problem for Apple in this product space is that their revenue model is based on the sales of “mass luxury”, “closed” Apple devices. Moreover, while Amazon, Google, and Apple each leverage smart speakers to extend their own ecosystems, Apple’s product design treats smart speakers as a relatively dumb and local extension of the iPhone. AI-powered, voice control of multi-room music and IoT devices demand a far lower average cost and multi-vendor interoperability for ubiquity. Amazon and Google monetize the services enabled by their low cost devices through advertising and e-commerce: sectors where Apple doesn’t play.101112 Siri will hopefully improve markedly in the future now that Apple has hired Google’s former head of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft

You might have missed it but Microsoft also has a voice-controlled personal assistant, Cortana. To date, it has seen limited adoption beyond Windows 10-equipped PC’s. Only the Harmon Kardon Invoke speakers support Cortana.13 Microsoft is now focusing Cortana on enterprise applications.

Summary

Artificial intelligence-based, voice-controlled services will be dominated by the largest tech companies. From a consumer perspective, the question is how best ‘to future-proof’ your smart home, particularly given the costs and complexity of a necessarily multi-vendor household. If you are a comparatively small hardware device manufacturer, the question is how best to incorporate one or more of these ecosystems into your product line. 

For Sonos, this marks a unique opportunity to tap into increasing market demand for higher quality, voice activated speakers. Sonos now has the opportunity to sell beyond its traditional A/V enthusiast demographic. Sonos alone has announced they will work with Amazon, Apple, and Google’s voice assistants. Sonos launched with Alexa support. In July 2018, Sonos added support for Airplay 2 and Siri (via a remote iOS device). Sonos has hinted that native Siri support may be coming. Finally, Sonos has promised to add Google Assistant before 2018 year-end.

Our Family’s Most Frequent Voice-Enabled Use Cases

1. Music: there is always music playing throughout our house–a song from our iTunes library, a streaming music service, or an Internet radio station
2. Information searches:
   • It is surprising how fast our family has adopted Google Assistant-enabled devices as an alternative search engine. We no longer need to type a lengthy search in a mobile or Mac web browser. Weather, internal temperature, sports scores, upcoming TV shows are all a shout away. Recent conversational enhancements make information filtering less cumbersome.
   • Moreover, we expect interactive content, not just speech response. For example, my toddler uses Google Home for animal and vehicle sound effects and a nap time wave machine.
3. Control of home lights and power switches: of all IoT-specific use cases, this is the one we use the most. As we walk into room, sit on a couch, or wake up in the bed, it is often easier to use voice control than a physical switch, particularly for lamps.
4. Intercom: because we are blessed with a large home, it is difficult to hear one another across rooms and floors. The Google Assistant broadcast capability is a compelling way for my wife and I to quickly notify our kids about dinner, chores, or other requests.

Designing Your Voice-Enabled Smart Home

To get the greatest value from your smart home, you should consider putting a voice enabled device in each room of your home that you regularly use. However, the capabilities and cost of the smart speaker will depend on how you use a particular room.

What follows are my recommendations for devices based on the individual room and how that relates to the Sonos One and Sonos Beam. I should note that Sonos’ range of speakers goes far beyond the Sonos One and Beam, including larger desktop speakers, soundbars, and a powered woofer. While they are all best-in-their class, only the Sonos One and Beam are smart speakers. It is, however, possible to retrofit voice services with older Sonos speakers by pairing them with either a Sonos One or Beam or an Amazon Echo Dot.

Mini Smart Speakers: Voice Controlled “Remotes”

As I touched on above, voice-enabled “remotes” like the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini enable pervasive voice control of IoT devices such as lights, power switches, and thermostats. They also serve audio notifications/confirmations and intercom functions. They are cheap enough to place one in every room of your house. Neither Apple nor Sonos have product offerings in this category, limiting the reach of Siri.

Smart Speakers Optimized for Listening to Music

Most consumers will get their first taste of voice-controlled speakers by buying an inexpensive device like an Amazon Echo or Google Home. In addition to supporting smart home control, like the remotes, these speakers are also suited for occasional music listening. As consumers use these devices to listen to more music, I believe that, over time, many will desire higher quality speakers. The Sonos One hits the price-performance sweet spot: although it costs nearly twice what an Echo or Home does, it provides significantly better sound. And, the Sonos One is far more cost effective than the Google Home Max or Apple HomePod.14

Smart Soundbars

The Sonos Beam is one of the first voice-enabled soundbars on the market. It is more competitively priced that the older, larger Sonos PLAY. By itself, the Beam is ideal for smaller rooms and apartments. However, it can also be paired with  two Sonos Ones for a 5.0 system or even a SUB for a 5.1 home theater system. Compared to the old PLAYBAR, the Beam is much more compact and significantly lower priced.

For audiophiles, a soundbar is a more limited option than using an AVR because it supports fewer channels and is limited to lower quality surround sound audio codecs.15 The Beam is the right first step. Hopefully, Sonos will revise the PLAYBAR to include voice-control, HDMI eARC, and decoding of lossless surround codecs like Dolby Atmos, Dolby TrueHD DTS:X, or DTS-HD. This would provide a high-end soundbar to complement the Beam.

Voice Controlled A/V Systems

At the high end, many consumers own A/V receivers or home theater systems. These receivers may include native Apple AirPlay 1 functionality. Then, a better solution emerged: a $20-35 Google Chromecast Audio dongle for your A/V receiver. Unless you were a Sonos purist, this undercut the need for the $350 Sonos Connect component.16 Now, many A/V receivers include native Google Cast functionality, eliminating the need for the Chromecast Audio dongle and manual input switching. You can then control this Google Cast functionality with a mini smart speaker.

Recently, Onkyo announced that select Onkyo and Pioneer receivers have received “Works with Sonos” certification. Onkyo receivers and Sonos Connect function as a single unit, controlled by the Sonos mobile app or Alexa. Unfortunately, consumers will still need to purchase the Sonos Connect. And, even last year’s Onkyo AVR’s aren’t currently supported.

Next: Part 2

Be sure to read Part 2, where I cover Sonos One / Beam voice services integration and room calibration.

Updated on November 20th, 2018