Alexa To Be Added To Toyota Cars, Windows PCs: How Dominance Happens

While Alexa''s dominance in the smart speaker market seems apparent, Amazon perceives itself to be at a disadvantage to Google's because the latter can be loaded on almost any Android device, which number in the tens of millions. 

 To counter Google's ostensible electronic ecosystem advantage Amazon is actively seeking third-party alliance partners in order to establish Alexa as the dominant brand in that category before Google's arguably superior performance can catch up. JL



Khari Johnson reports in Venture Beat, Valentina Palladino reports in ars technica:

Alexa's reach isn't necessarily a problem for Amazon, but the company doesn't have the hardware platform advantages that Google does, as Google's Assistant is available to millions of Android users already. Microsoft, Acer, Asus, and HP have all announced forthcoming PCs that integrate Alexa. Toyota, one of the world’s largest car makers, plans to bring Amazon’s Alexa to Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the U.S. this year.

Venture Beat Toyota, one of the world’s largest car makers, plans to bring Amazon’s Alexa to select Toyota and Lexus vehicles in the U.S. this year, the company announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Alexa in Toyota vehicles will be able to do many of the things Alexa does in a smart speaker: control smart devices, play music, give navigation directions, and get access to more than 25,000 Alexa skills from third-party developers.
People whose Toyotas come with the Entune 3.0 App Suite, like 2018 Camry and Sienna models, as well as Lexus owners whose car runs the Enform App Suite 2.0, will be able to speak with Amazon’s AI assistant this year. Alexa integration is planned for more Toyota models next year, according to a statement.
Other AI assistants in vehicles at CES this year include Harman International’s integration of Bixby and Google Assistant in Android Auto. Chinese tech giant Baidu, which runs the Apollo self-driving car project that speaks with Duer, also announced upgrades for developers. Before the start of the conference, electric car maker Byton announced plans to integrate Alexa into a 49-inch screen that spans the dashboard of its concept car.
Last year at CES, Ford announced Alexa integration for some vehicles using Ford’s Sync 3 operating system.

ars technica Unlike Amazon and Google, Amazon and Microsoft have been on decent terms with each other recently. Last year, the two companies announced plans to allow their virtual assistants, Alexa and Cortana, to "talk" to each other on Windows 10 PCs. At CES, a number of Windows 10 PC manufacturers are announcing their own partnerships with Amazon to integrate Alexa into their devices, a separate initiative with the apparent goal of bringing full Alexa features to Windows 10 devices.
"Hands-free access to Alexa on PCs can be helpful to customers in many ways, like making it simple to interact with your smart home, get news or weather, set timers, and more," Steve Rabuchin, vice president of Amazon's Alexa division, said in Acer's press release. "This is a big step toward making Alexa available wherever customers might need her."
Acer, Asus, and HP have all announced forthcoming PCs that integrate Alexa: select Acer Aspire, Spin, Switch, and Swift notebooks and some Aspire all-in-one PCs; select Asus ZenBook and VivoBook laptops; and HP's new Pavilion Wave PC, which looks most like an Amazon Echo than any of the other devices. Some of the new devices will use Intel's Smart Sound Technology, an integrated audio DSP, for improved audio, voice, and speech interactions with Alexa.
These devices will reportedly use a new Alexa Windows 10 app that's being developed and will be released later this year. The new app will allow users to ask Alexa questions just like they would with an Echo device. Since all of these devices have a screen or can be connected to a monitor, Alexa will be able to display information in addition to providing audio feedback. However, not all Alexa features will be available at launch, so users will have to wait even longer to be able to access security camera feeds, use Amazon's calling and messaging services, and use streaming services like Spotify.
Amazon's latest partnership with PC OEMs is separate from its partnership with Microsoft that aims to have Alexa and Cortana speak to each other. Windows PC users could say "Hey Cortana, open Alexa" to access Alexa's more than 25,000 skills and other features. The goal was to have Alexa and Cortana playing nicely with each other by December 2017, but that deadline came and went without any major updates.The two companies haven't announced changes to the original partnership, but it appears Amazon is starting to take another approach to getting Alexa in front of millions of Windows 10 users. Alexa's reach isn't necessarily a problem for Amazon, but the company doesn't have the hardware platform advantages that Google does, as Google's Assistant is available to millions of Android users already.