Parks Points

Smart speakers are becoming a more common platform for controlling connected entertainment due to a rapid increase in popularity and ease of use. Household penetration of smart speakers is expected to reach 47% among U.S. broadband households by 2022, according to Parks Associates research. New entrants in the voice-first connected CE market, include Samsung, Roku and Facebook.

The average U.S. broadband household in 2018 had 8.8 connected computing, entertainment, or mobile devices, all with unique user controls or interfaces. Voice technology is emerging as a solution to this complexity, offering a single interface for all connected devices.

Consumers have expressed a strong interest in this approach, with more than one-third of U.S. broadband households finding it very appealing to use voice to control their entertainment devices.

However, despite voice-controlled entertainment's advantages for searching and streaming content, consumer adoption remains low, with only 3% of U.S. broadband households using voice commands when watching video.

Consumer adoption of voice-controlled CE devices places new interoperability demands on product manufacturers. Ideally, all consumer-purchased products would work perfectly with each other. However, the reality of this level of interoperability remains elusive, with about 10% of consumers returning a CE device citing interoperability as the reason for the return.

Voice-AI systems remain weak in the contextual awareness required to properly respond based on which device the consumer is using, where the user is, what time it is, etc. These variables may require different responses from the virtual assistant; however, typical existing systems fail to account for them.

Voice interfaces simplify the experience by utilizing the user's verbal commands to make adjustments, change the volume, etc. A person wishing to view the news need only say "CNN" to be directed to that channel. Voice command also presents a simple means of deeply searching a library. Commands such as "find all free Tom Hanks adventure movies" would be difficult and slow to enter on a manual remote, but effortless via voice.

The consumer movement to voice-controlled entertainment is still in its early stages; however, interest in these applications is quickly growing and impacting purchasing decisions. Companies wishing to capitalize on this growing market need to carefully develop their market strategies and plan for both short- and long-term success.

This article was originally published in TechNewsWorld.