So, the problems were that Microsoft was the challenger not the leader, knew what they needed to do but didn’t do it, had a key advantage that needed a scale they couldn’t achieve out of the gate, and one of their biggest features, video, was nearly impossible to get to work.
Echo Show vs. HomePod
Unlike the Microsoft Zune facing a massively more successful iPod, the Echo Show faces a product, the HomePod, that doesn’t even exist in market yet. The Amazon Echo is by far the dominant product in the segment and Amazon actually has a line which includes both an entry level product (The Dot), and a portable product (The Tap) along with the original Echo. While iTunes remains very popular even Apple users often have multiple music services that Amazon’s offerings currently support making it hard to migrate in either direction between the two products which hurts Apple more because, in this instance, they are the challenging vendor.
Like the Zune the Echo Show does video while the Apple HomePod does not, however streaming and downloadable video content is far more accessible and the Echo Show even supports video conferencing and room to room intercom which the HomePod does not.
Originally posted 2017-06-29 01:16:48.
