Amazon Echo is digging Google's grave

Amazon's Alexa, the personal assistant that launched with the Amazon Echo smart speaker, completely dominated this year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Just ask anyone: “Alexa Just Conquered CES. The World Is Next,“ read one Wired headline.CNBC, the BBC, MIT Technology Review, and many others all had laudatoy reports.

It's a reflection of the power that Amazon is starting to wield in the nascent smart home market, as a growing number of people come to rely on their Echo devices to run their homes and to automate their lives.


The market for the Echo is still small compared to smartphones, but it's growing fast. Google already has the Google Home, its own voice enabled speaker. Microsoft partnered with Harmon to bring its Cortana virtual assistant to a smart speaker.

Even Apple is rumored to be working on a Siri speaker. But so far Amazon is the smart speaker to beat, with an early start and plenty of buzz.