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Amazon has announced that its popular voice assistant for its Echo speaker now has over 3,000 skills.

Here are a few of the new capabilities that have recently been released:

Twitter was added as a skill this past weekend. Users can now ask Alexa to read them tweets from their timeline or all tweets on a trending topic.

was added as a skill this past weekend. Users can now ask Alexa to read them tweets from their timeline or all tweets on a trending topic. Find My Phone from TrackR allows users to find their misplaced phone by asking the voice assistant “Alexa, ask TrackR to find my phone,” causing the phone to ring.

from TrackR allows users to find their misplaced phone by asking the voice assistant “Alexa, ask TrackR to find my phone,” causing the phone to ring. Hyundai Genesis received Alexa integration last month, where Genesis Connected Car Services users can enable the Genesis Echo skill and unlock or remotely start their Alexa-linked cars from inside their homes.

Amazon also announced that the following skills would be coming to Alexa in the coming weeks:

Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football is coming soon, just as the NFL season gets underway. Amazon says users will be able to pull up players, rankings, and scores through this skill.

is coming soon, just as the NFL season gets underway. Amazon says users will be able to pull up players, rankings, and scores through this skill. What To Expect, Baby & Pregnancy is coming by the end of the month. This would allow expecting and current parents to receive personalized updates through each day of pregnancy and once the baby is born.

is coming by the end of the month. This would allow expecting and current parents to receive personalized updates through each day of pregnancy and once the baby is born. Bloomberg is also coming by the end of this month. This skill will allow users to pull up US stock quotes, leading international indices, and the latest business and financial news. This comes after a recent report that Alexa could eventually be used as a business analyst.

Amazon has continued to increase third-party partnerships and expand the capabilities of the popular voice assistant. These new skills come after the e-commerce giant added Uber and Spotify to Alexa’s skills earlier this year while exploring an expansion of notifications that could lead Alexa to speak to users unprompted.

Further, Amazon could soon be releasing a cheaper version of the Echo Dot, according toMacRumors. The company tweeted that they would be releasing a $49.99 version of the Dot, which is currently sold out, but the tweet was quickly deleted.

While Amazon insists this was an accident, it would make sense given the growing popularity of the Echo line of products. Amazon is expanding devices with access to Alexa, including the new line of Kindle tablets as well as LG’s new speaker. Increasing the number of means through which users can access Alexa can only increase its market size and provide greater avenues for automation and for users to purchase goods through Amazon.

Despite Alexa's impressive array of skills, we believe the overall smart home market is stuck in the 'chasm' of the technology adoption curve, in which it is struggling to surpass the early-adopter phase and move to the mass-market phase of adoption.

There are many barriers preventing mass-market smart home adoption: high device prices, limited consumer demand and long device replacement cycles. However, the largest barrier is the technological fragmentation of the smart home ecosystem, in which consumers need multiple networking devices, apps and more to build and run their smart home.

John Greenough, senior research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the U.S. smart home market that analyzes current consumer demand for the smart home and barriers to widespread adoption. It also analyzes and determines areas of growth and ways to overcome barriers.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Smart home devices are becoming more prevalent throughout the US. We define a smart home device as any stand-alone object found in the home that is connected to the internet, can be either monitored or controlled from a remote location, and has a noncomputing primary function. Multiple smart home devices within a single home form the basis of a smart home ecosystem.

Currently, the US smart home market as a whole is in the "chasm" of the tech adoption curve. The chasm is the crucial stage between the early-adopter phase and the mass-market phase, in which manufacturers need to prove a need for their devices.

High prices, coupled with limited consumer demand and long device replacement cycles, are three of the four top barriers preventing the smart home market from moving from the early-adopter stage to the mass-market stage. For example, mass-market consumers will likely wait until their device is broken to replace it. Then they will compare a nonconnected and connected product to see if the benefits make up for the price differential.

The largest barrier is technological fragmentation within the connected home ecosystem. Currently, there are many networks, standards, and devices being used to connect the smart home, creating interoperability problems and making it confusing for the consumer to set up and control multiple devices. Until interoperability is solved, consumers will have difficulty choosing smart home devices and systems.

"Closed ecosystems" are the short-term solution to technological fragmentation. Closed ecosystems are composed of devices that are compatible with each other and which can be controlled through a single point.

In full, the report:

Analyzes the demand of US consumers, based off of survey results

Forecasts out smart home device growth until 2020

Determines the current leaders in the market

Explains how the connected home ecosystem works

Examines how Apple and Google will play a major role in the development of the smart home

Some of the companies mentioned in this report include Apple, Google, Nest, August, ADT, Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Lowe's, and Honeywell.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the smart home market.