TECHNOLOGY: In the United States, Amazon has taken the lead, but in France, the company comes after Google Home …
It’s not too soon. Three and a half years after its launch in the United States, Alexa is about to storm the French market. The Amazon wizard will be launched in Version Francaise on the 13th June, with the Echo family of devices (Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Spot) available for pre-order today at half price , announced the company in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday. While Google moved to France almost a year ago with its Home speakers, the connected home war can begin.
“Alexa has been completely redesigned, including a new French voice, help in French, local knowledge and hundreds of skills devised for France by developers,” says the company. These “skills” are the equivalent of apps on iOS or Android, and offer new features to Alexa, including connected home (Philips Hue bulbs, Nest Thermostat etc.). In France, Alexa will be able to count on 200 skills. For example: book a table on TheFork, find a merchant in the Yellow Pages or order a pizza from Domino’s.
Two-thirds of the market for Amazon, a third for Google
In the war against Google, Amazon has taken a step ahead. First on the market, Alexa has already made a name for herself and found her voice in popular culture, including a very successful advertisement for the Super Bowl, with Cardi B, Gordon Ramsay and Anthony Hopkins as guests.
Jeff Bezos’ company says it has sold “several tens of millions” of Echo devices around the world. According to Canalsys estimates , connected speaker sales reached 33 million copies in 2017, including just over 20 million for Amazon. For its part, Google said recently have sold a home device per second, or ten million.
According to Canalys, Google however exceeded for Amazon in the first quarter of 2018, thanks to the success of its small home mini speaker. In short, both companies are going for broke and could leave Apple’s HomePod far behind.
