Blog: Alexa

Read our latest daily deep dives, hot takes, and exciting updates about the digital entertainment world. Check out the latest from your favourite analyst, or search by coverage - games, video, music, audio, social, or critical developments.

The future lies beyond tech – a long(er) read

Hanna Kahlert

14 Dec 2022

metaverse

NFTs

As entertainment companies start planning their next big steps for the coming year, the success and failure of their strategic decisions will hinge on one big, and perhaps surprising, existential question...

min read

Ellie Goulding and Billie Eilish Are Streaming’s New Normal

Mark Mulligan

3 Jan 2020

Alexa

billie eilish

Christmas number one

Less than a week into the new decade and we already have the first indications that the streaming rulebook continues to be rewritten faster than the ink can dry on its last entry. Three separate articles,...

min read

Have We Reached Peak Tech?

Mark Mulligan

27 Sep 2019

Alexa

disruption

dot com

In last week’s Take Five I highlighted a Vox story which reported that over the last year the number of companies using terms like ‘tech’ or technology’ in their documents is down 12%. This is...

min read

Spotify, Apple Music and Ad-Supported Streaming

Zach Fuller

11 May 2018

ad supported streaming

Alexa

Amazon Music

Cast your mind back to streaming yesteryear, back when the format was yet to establish itself as the industry’s dominant source of revenue. Spotify pushed heavily for a free tier, citing its impressive...

min read

Sonos @ 15

Mark Mulligan

8 Sep 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Sonos, granddaddy of the connected home audio marketplace, is now 15 years old. Sonos was a pioneer that was so far ahead of its time, it inadvertently found itself as one of the key early drivers of streaming...

min read

The Three Eras Of Paid Streaming

Mark Mulligan

28 Jul 2017

3 ages of streaming

3 eras of streaming

3 phases of streaming

Streaming has driven such a revenue renaissance within the major record labels that the financial markets are now falling over themselves to work out where they can invest in the market, and indeed whether...

min read

Thoughts On Second-Order Effects For Content Discovery in Voice

Zach Fuller

30 Jun 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Second-order effects are rarely considered when new technologies come to the fore and reach critical mass. For example, the realisation of smartphones, the emergence of Apple's app store and the ubiquity...

min read

Quick Take: Amazon’s Whole Foods Acquisition Is A Major Coup For Voice Control Commerce

Zach Fuller

16 Jun 2017

acquisition

Alexa

Amazon

In the hours following the announcement of Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of American supermarket chain Whole Foods, much of the immediate attention is currently focused on how the e-commerce giant...

min read

Quick Take: Google Home Counters The Echo Threat By Introducing Payments

Zach Fuller

1 Jun 2017

Alexa

Amazon Echo

google assistant

Google have released a new Google Payment API with specific emphasis on voice capabilities. The service will allow Google Home device users to pay in-app or online with any verified credit or debit card...

min read

Why the Voice Control Landscape Will Be So Competitive

Zach Fuller

26 May 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Withthe success of Prime and the Echo, Amazon at present is experiencing the same halo effect that graced Microsoft in the 90s and Apple in the 00s. Withtheir finger on the pulse of everything from entertainment...

min read

Amazon Double Down on Voice Control by Announcing Echo Show

Zach Fuller

9 May 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Amazon is doubling down on Echo’s success (60% growth rate since November 2016) by just announcing the Echo Show. A visual iteration on the Echo, the device is priced at $229.99 and will initially only...

min read

Will Amazon’s Lex Platform Be the New App-Store?

Zach Fuller

21 Apr 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Prime Video

Swiftly following the success of the Echo, Amazon have announced their Lex platform is now open to 3rd party developers, allowing them to create and monetise chat-bots, further embellishing the device....

min read

A Tale Of Two Technologies: The Narrative And The Numbers For VR And Voice

Zach Fuller

1 Feb 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

In the tradition of effective storytelling, the technology industry’s romantic narrative often involves two basic troupes: a garage and a dream. This alluring chronology is so embedded in start-up folklore...

min read

Will Amazon Eat The Voice Command World?

Karol Severin

9 Jan 2017

Alexa

Amazon

Amazon Echo

Last year was undoubtedly the year of video. As CES kicked off to shine more light on where the efforts of the industry are headed this year, it is becoming increasingly clear just how much voice command...

min read