I've now been living with the Echo Show for several weeks. It has supplanted my originalAmazon Echo in the kitchen. I find itboth more excitingand more frustrating than the original. The screen adds a compelling new element but creates expectations that are not fully realized- as though Amazon is ambivalent or uncertain how far to take the screen as a parallel way of controlling and navigating content. The screen makes things more complicated, even as it makes the device more interesting and useful. It opensa door to a much larger set of use cases, including a much more obvious commerce opportunity. (It's not clear whether Amazon's rivals will follow and add screens to their devices. If the Showis a runaway hit, I suspect they will.) Creates tablet-like expectationsImmediately for me, the Echo Show'sscreen created UX expectations associated with a tablet. I wantedto touch it and get menus and navigation. I wanted to browse and search for things usingthe screen. I wanted to see lists of available Skills. With a couple of exceptions, you can't do any of these things. Some consider this design restraint, but I wanted the screen to do more and operatemore intuitively. Ultimately, Amazon will have to determine how far it wants to enable screen-first (as opposed to voice-first) experiences for the Show. For example, you can say, Show me what you can do. The device then produces alist on screen: set an alarm, show PrimeTV shows, find songs by Lisa Loeband so on. But none of the items on this listare touchable or clickable. Youcan't touch Prime TV and access a menu of available shows.You have to query the device by voice: Alexa, show me Transparent from Amazon Prime Video. I think the Show should be more agnostic about how users get to content. I suspect that as Amazon sees how people engage with it, over time the screen's capabilities and functionality will grow. Design is basic, sound is better than EchoSome have foundthe trapezoidal design of the Show uninspired. I'm not bothered by it, although it is utilitarian (and eerily evocative of OrwellianTelescreens from 1984). Thesound quality on the Echo Show is better than the original Echo. Thus,if you were to buy only one Alexa device, the Show would bemy recommendation. But theShow costs$230, while the Echo is $179 and the Dot is $49. As recent survey datafrom NPR and Edison research revealed, many people who've declined to purchase a smart speaker are holding back because of cost. Amazon has wisely diversified its lineupto offer a range of price points and capabilities accordingly. The Echo Show screen also enablesAmazon to more effectively promptand educate users about itscapabilities and what's new. This is a hugeadvantage over the conventional Echo, which relies on weekly email updates, which I don't read, to inform users of new Skills or capabilities. Yet there appears to beno way to turn off the home screen messages. It's pretty clear that Amazon is laying the groundwork for offers or ads, should the companygo down that path. Indeed, it may eventually offer a subsidized Show with special offers and a more expensive one without, as it does with other devices it sells. Right now thereare almost no Skillsadapted for thescreen. Thatwill probably changequickly; in fact, Brightcove just launched a program to help developers bring video to their Skillsfor the new device. It's hard to overstate the nature of the visual opportunity for developers and brands on the Show. A big new commerce opportunityTravel and commerce apps, for example, will benefit from the ability to visually present multiple optionsto end users, which will soon drive transactions. Youcan scroll, for example, through multiple Amazon products ornearby businesses featuring Yelp ratings. Even in theirembryonic form, these changes represent a dramatic upgrade vs. the voice-only Alexa devices. And should Amazon eventually allow it, developers couldinsert ads into their Skills. The video-calling feature works well, provided the other party has the Alexa app on a device or another Show. Hopefully video calling will integrate with third-party apps and services. Amazon would be wise to allow that to happen. As an illustration of how different the Echo and Show are, here's a non-exhaustive list of things you can do with Echo Showbecause of the screen:
TheShow is a compelling,albeit imperfect, addition to the Alexa device lineup. I would just like to see Amazon more fully embrace thescreen - perhaps not turn it into a full-blown tablet, but something more touch-friendly than it is today. The post Amazon's Echo Show is a '1.0' device, both exciting and frustrating appeared first on Search Engine Land.
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