As my nephew pointed out to me this Christmas, I'm a sucker for a gadget, Amazon Wear watch, Android phones from Day one other than a Windows Phone period last year, VR headsets, Chromebooks, Chromecasts.. I’ve played and still use most of them.

This years “must have” technology is the smarthouse entry product range, and while there are two main players in the UK for this right now Google Home and Amazon Echo a substantial amount of research shows that Google has a lot of catching up to do on Amazon’s offering which I’m sure they will manage, however right here right now “Context aware search” is about the only feature i can think of that Google’s UK Home variant does that Echo doesn’t

The problem with technology like this is it falls into a few categories..

You have to use it to get it. Not everyone will need it, or get it straight away It really needs to take off.

As with most new technology the first thing that most people are going to ask is Why, why do i need this in my life? I’m not Ironman or living in a comic book universe.

My answer with this is the same as it was with the mobile phone, email, twitter, face book or any emerging technology we now take for granted, right now you don’t need this in your life on a daily basis.

Don’t get me wrong, its a great product, it works, it does what it says on the box however its still early days and there is a lot of potential to still be opened with this little device.

If we look at the three problems with any device like this to start with.

You have to use it to get it.

With a lot of modern technology this is the case, more so now than in the past. VR headsets are another great example of this problem, if you’ve never put a VR headset on then the most you’ve ever seen of these devices is something like this

Not a great example of VR technology, and Amazon Echo is exactly the same, the adverts and youtube videos you may (or may not) have watched don’t do the potential of this technology justice until you use it.

Not everyone will need it, or get it straight away

Much like the need to use it, when you do, not everyone is going to get it immediately, technology needs killer apps, the reason you’re Gran would adopt it. It’s the one thing stopping most wearables right now other than being seen as a glorified over price fitbit the Apple and android watch devices have no mainstream killer app, no reason for anyone other than technology enthusiasts and early adopters to pick it up.

Right now Amazon Echo’s Killer apps are you can use your voice to play music and turn the lights on and off.

However something Amazon have done VERY well is open up the device so Skills can be added (What time is my next train, what do i have on my calendar) a few more such as recipes, local movie listings, ordering Pizza and being able to interact with Amazon TV and Android devices in general better and the potential will start to emerge..

It really needs to take off.

This may sound obvious however being a great technology or idea doesn’t mean you’re destined for million dollar greatness. the Windows Phone is a great phone, far better than android or iPhone however thats languishing in the bottom draw of most peoples old tech graveyard not because it wasn’t a great phone, but because there were no mainstream apps, there were no mainstream apps because there were not enough phone sold to make it commercially viable to write apps for the device.

With Google currently being the main competitor with Google Home and Microsoft about to release soon this market has the potential yo get flooded very quickly. So Amazon need to support early adoptors, make it easy to make skills, or link to every home automation lightbulb, fridge or coffee maker on the planet, they need to get the prices down of things like Hive and Hue and make this product hackable and open..

For all the reasons this platform may have problems, after a week of using the Echo dot I have to say i am HUGELY impressed.

We went for the DEcho dot, the smaller of the family because we have a Bose bluetooth speaker already which it connected to first time, giving far better sound than the full echo speakers and a far smaller foot print. While the speakers in the second Dot are more than capable of playing the radio in the bedroom, they are not up to playing Spotify in the rest of the house so if you do get an Echo Dot either spend a bit of money on a decent bluetooth speaker set OR there is a 3.5mm audio jack as well..

I love the facility to play Spotify playlists or artists/albums through the house and even bought a second dot to replace the clock radio in the bedroom. The news briefings while i am getting ready for work in the morning are a real nice to have and the facility to create todo lists which work alongside Google Calendar fits into my already Android centric life.

The facility within the android app to see what the Echo Dot heard is also useful and I do hope over time much like the google voice search this improves.

So where do we go from here?

Well if the technology industry is smart this year will see three big players Google, Amazon and Microsoft try and own the home, at least one of these will build a walled garden with products which work only with their product.. This will hopefully fail, the Internet of things needs open standards right now, and these home voice control systems need to attach to all of the IoT devices which pop up over the next year at least. Sure provide your own “edge” with google thats going to be Youtube, Music content etc and with Amazon this is going to be buying, hopefully further integration into Amazon TV and potentially even wearables Alexa on a smartwatch will work..

If i was living in an absolute dreamworld i’ve love to see integration with the Google Chromecast rather than bluetooth for audio and see the Alexa app on Android as an Alternative to OK Google however thats not going to happen at a native level..

This is the dawn of a brave new world, one which i’m sure we will revisit over the year. As it stands right now however for less that £50 i’ve got a slice of the Jetsons in my living room and i’m loving it.