Latest headlines: Jack Wetherill on the rise of voice assistant technology, Lee Distad on the threat of substitution, plus news from Luxul!
September 9, 2020 | Volume: 17 | Issue: 17
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the first home issue of September. Which is … almost fall? Don’t ask me about how time passes because I have no idea.
For a year that has been weird — to say the least — the AV world has continued to innovate. Just take a look at a couple of these columns from our friends over at Futuresource Consulting. One is on the novelty (and success) of smart home control, and the other is on the booming gaming market right now. Which, I didn’t have to tell y’all that headsets are all the rage right now. In a world that is pretty heavily WFH right now, headsets are a must.
Also — check out Lee Distad’s column for something on the other end of the innovation spectrum. Yikes! A company (non-AV, but the lesson stands) that is doing business during COVID pretttttttty badly. Heed his advice — yes, things right now are taking longer than usual, and we should be conscious and respectful of that. But also we should be trying to do the best we can right now. Definitely not what this example was doing!
Finally, take a look at some of these product updates:
Rotel has new home theater receivers.
LG Business Solutions is officially a member of the fitness equipment market.
Smart speakers continue to capture the hearts and wallets of consumers, driving demand for wireless speakers and establishing a wider acceptance of voice assistants. By the end of 2019, 21 million smart speakers were in use in Western European homes, on track to exceed 32 million by the end of this year according to Futuresource forecasts.
So I had a particularly notable and unsatisfying customer service experience this year. I say “this year” because it’s been slowly unfolding like a slow-motion train wreck throughout almost all of 2020. Bear with me here, because it’s kind of a convoluted tale.
The video gaming industry has risen to new heights in 2020, with prevailing market conditions stimulating consumer demand and console lifecycles coming together to create an environment of opportunity. According to Futuresource research, by the end of this year the gaming software market will be worth US $154 billion, and gaming hardware will end the year at U.S. $15 billion, with 51 million consoles shipped.