Apple Vs. Amazon Vs. Google: Digital Assistants Square Off At CES

Loup Ventures' Andrew Murphy said in a note on Thursday said he loves what he is seeing in the natural language processing space and the advancements made by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL). That said, the analyst believes there is an opportunity for these systems to improve.

Murphy is now a colleague of Gene Munster at Loup Capital. Like Munster, he was a former Piper Jaffray analyst; Murphy left the firm in 2012, while Munster quit in late 2016.

While noting that digital assistance is a field that benefits proportionately more early in the AI learning curve, Murphy said Google and Amazon were more comfortable releasing early tech. Apple also released Siri before she was perfect, the analyst noted. The analyst believes the space is too interesting to sit out, and the early part of the learning curve is perhaps the most important time for AIs to start learning.

Frustrating, Yet Innovating

However, Murphy believes the technology is not yet where it needs to be for the average tech consumer who expects the product to just work.

A survey of 355 consumers across the United States asked what technologies users find the most frustrating today. The results showed slow and glitchy devices, spotty internet connections and the automated phone systems were the top complaints. Murphy was, however, surprised by the fact that digital assistants such as Apple's Siri, Google's Google Home and Amazon's Alexa were the fourth most frustrating technology.

CES Appearances

The analyst noted that Alexa is everywhere at the CES, now being integrated into third-party hardware. Although lacking a CES presence, the analyst noted that Apple's Siri is the most present digital assistant. Google Assistant, the technology driving Google Home, has also expanded its reach with several new integrations announced at CES, the analyst said.

Image Credit: By ETC-USC (CES 2017_Opening Keynote_Carnival_Levy) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons