The Smart Speaker Is Here

…and it wants a spot in your living room

- Ashwin Rajagopalan

There was one point at the Google I/O 2018 – Google’s annual developer conference - which saw the audience erupt in applause. Sundar Pichai introduced an all-new Google Assistant and showed off a new skill. Assistant called a hair salon to make an appointment in response to an instruction from Pichai, and the salon employee couldn't tell that she was in a conversation with a bot. This was no bot with a robotic voice, but one that managed to pose as a real person. Assistant promptly updated the calendar once the salon confirmed the appointment. Pulling off the voice act was only part of the trick - Assistant also needed to stay in the conversation by understanding what the salon executive said. Google calls this Duplex, but hasn't confirmed when this will be available on your smartphone. Google needs all the tricks in the book for another battle that has been brewing; India is the latest frontier for this slugfest – the smart speaker segment.

It was Amazon that fired the opening salvo in India in October 2017, with the launch of Echo, which was driven by Alexa, its digital assistant. Google Home arrived almost six months later. Apple’s Home Pod hasn't confirmed its India launch date, leaving the Echo and Google Home to create the buzz for this category. We put these two speakers head to head.

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