| People have a very different perception of their relationship with Amazon (and, similarly, Apple) and their relationship with Google. Amazon sells you stuff in exchange for money.* This is a clearly understood type of transaction that people understand. Google gives you stuff in exchange for being able to "sell your eyeballs" to third parties. And, most people actually believe that Google sells your data to those third parties, even though that's not the case, which gets at the fact that this model is not as well-understood. As far as hardware design: Echo provides a clear and prominently-placed button (right on top), with an LED light indicating when it's muting the microphone; when the button is active, the entire indicator ring also lights up. This button has equal prominence with the button that can be used to manually activate Alexa. The existence of this button was highlighted when Amazon introduced Echo. Google Home places the button on the back side of the device, when there is clearly a "front," as defined by the tilt of the top surface. The existence of this button was not highlighted in the introduction at I/O. * Yes, Amazon also runs an advertising network. Most people don't really know this. And it's a very, very small part of their business. |