To stay ahead of Google, Amazon increases competition against its Alexa partners

TP-Link has a very good performance on Amazon.com. Two of Alexa's smart connectors enabled for the company have dominated Amazon's list of best-selling electrical connectors for most of the year, helping the Chinese manufacturer to sell thousands of connectors.

Unfortunately for TP-Link, it is about to get a new competition, that of Amazon itself. Last month, the e-commerce giant held a product launch event in Seattle, where it unveiled a long list of new devices including Alexa-enabled Amazon Smart Plug. The card will be on sale at $ 25 next week, a few dollars more than TP-Link cards.

In November, Amazon will start selling the Alexa-compatible plug-in AmazonBasics Microwave, which will compete with a higher price Microwave GE Appliances. Amazon will sell the Echo subwoofer next week, Echo link later this year and Link Amp next year. They will compete with the most expensive Sub, Connect and Connect amplifiers from Sonos.

These new Amazon devices are another example of Amazon's concurrent cooperation and competition with the creation of new devices for its Alexa voice assistant. Until now, this situation has not pushed Amazon's friends to flee to the exit. In fact, the number of devices running with Alexa has soared. more than 20,000 this year.

Amazon is in the race to create a universe of products using Alexa to beat Google, which is evolving just as quickly to bring its rival Google Assistant in more places. This exacerbated competition could force Amazon to meddle with some of its partners in an attempt to outpace its competitors.

For now, Amazon's Amazon is well ahead, its Echo devices occupying 70% of the US market for smart speakers, according to Research Partners on Consumer Intelligence. But Google has quickly gained 24%. Google should update its range of smart speakers Google Home with its own product launch event next week.

But while Amazon continues to create new products, it is the smaller device manufacturers that could be stuck – or even crushed – to the extent that they are forced to compete with Amazon on its territory. The Nucleus startup has become a cautionary tale for this scenario, having created an intercom compatible with Alexa elbow when Amazon created the Echo Show contest. Although the fate of Nucleus is rare, customers might one day have less choice on the Amazon website if the company ventured too far into the territory of its partners.

David Limp, the hardware manager of Amazon, had a different perspective on the new gadgets of his company. Many of them were models for the device makers that Amazon would like to bring Alexa to.

"The solution for us is really to get a reference design for a configuration without frustration," said Mr. Limp, referring to Amazon's new concept of simplifying the configuration of the smart home by connecting a new device. . "We were expecting the TP-Links of the world and the Wemos of the world, we hope that they will follow you … And if that means that we do not build a plug in a few years, it will be great."

On the new audio equipment of Amazon, he said: "I am a big client of Sonos, so I would like to try to see them integrate Alexa, I think they will do it with time, and ours is only one more choice for customers. "

Amazon can also point to a long list of software and development kits available to hardware manufacturers to help them create Alexa devices.

In addition to microwave oven, plug and audio equipment, Amazon last month also revealed Updated versions of its Echo Plus, Echo Show and Echo Dot, as well as a wall clock, a digital video recorder and an automatic gadget to bring Alexa into your car.

Sonos spokesman Dane Estes said his company's activities were "complementary to those of Amazon". He added that Sonos was working on high-end audio systems open to a variety of streaming services as voice assistants, unlike Amazon which favors cheaper gadgets that work primarily with Alexa.

TP-Link said in a statement that it offered a variety of smart home products, including cards, lights and cameras. "As consumer demand for smart home capacity increases, we will continue to innovate in this category," said the company.

Foxconn's Wemo, which also makes a smart plug, and GE Appliances, owned by Haier, did not respond to a request for comment.

Nevertheless, specialists like TP-Link should be concerned about Amazon's installation on their territory, according to an industry observer.

"Of course, they should be, they have to be," said Stephen Baker, NPD's technical analyst.

According to Baker, Amazon is far from the only technology giant to compete directly with its partners. Google did it with its Pixel phone and its Chromebook, by confronting device makers based on its Android and Chrome software. Microsoft has done the same with its Surface range, going hand in hand with manufacturers using Windows.

According to Baker, these manufacturers, especially the smaller ones, do not have much choice to leave the Alexa ecosystem.

"If they do not have a software platform on which to support, they will not sell anything," he said. "So they have to find a way to work there."

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