Connected Devices Weekly Update/2016-09-01

Summary: A low cost device to help users create shopping lists with voice and get automatic reminders from their smartphone when they are near a local store, or optionally get them ordered directly from stores.

• Protos in User-Test Phase:
  • Tested & packaged units on the way to users with detailed instructions and set-up documentation / video etc. Regular communication set up with them to track usage as well as provide support. 2 products under test to better understand some intricacies: Vaani proto & Hiku
• Several validations planned
  • Within each of those 2 products we validate features, as well as to compare & contrast use cases & value where they differ (see update from last week). Questionnaire in preps.
• Software Update
  • In parallel, a couple improvements in the software being worked on for the next software update.

An always-on voice-enabled smart screen device to keep track of the activities, events, and to-do lists of family members.

MVP1 Hypothesis that Remains to be Tested

• Offering a solution that provides an alternative way to create and manage reminders, lists & schedules using a smart display, families would be able to accomplish their tasks 20% more times than before. (Pending smart display device to test)

Study 2 for MVP1

• Continued working on improvements in the past week, including wake word for the device, voice activity detector. Engineering team is back up to full strength following PTO.
• Working on setting up Google Analytics to capture usage data during study.
• Preparing architecture document for security review on Sept. 2nd.

• In order to maximize the amount of time to refine the concept based on the evaluative research, the originally planned product proposal date is moved from this week to next week.
• Refining on the concept of a dedicated devices that will represent the people you care about and to be placed at home so you feel more connected. The device would indicate availability and allow quick and easy direct voice message exchanges

• We met the Innovation Board yesterday. Based on the feedback we our re-evaluating the plan to accelerate and learn from users as soon as we can. An update will be provided next week.

• In the past week, the project was re-kickoff in the Bay Area with cross functional team in US, EU and Taipei.
• The team is looking at project goals with the objective to come up with a concrete plan that covers Hardware, Software, Marketing GTM plan with immediate, short and long terms deliverables. More detail information will be shared in early September.
• Goals:
  • Evidence from the experiments to show the consumer needs. (consumer service)
  • Defined product (kit) to be prototyped by partner (hardware solution)
  • Defined product plan by Oct 1st

• Experiment #2 - Concept Video [DONE]
  • This past weekend we deployed a Project SmartKitchen concept video
  • SurveyGizmo 219 paid viewers, US, 25-45 year olds, primary or share meal planning, household >1
  • Overall very positive feedback - research team is compiling the comments to help us analyze the data
• Experiment #6 - Upstream Concierge - [IN PROGRESS]
  • Launched on Friday
  • Receipts are being uploaded by Tamara and users can request meal suggestions
  • Current feedback is that many are not using the suggested recipes because the ones we are suggesting are time consuming
  • In the coming week, we plan to investigate the best way to give recipe suggestions to users.
  • Some are not getting meal suggestions based off of receipt items.
• Experiment #7 - Second Vendor Image Recognition [IN PROGRESS]
  • Team is uploading each image taken by the camera and saying which vendor recognizes the item in the image
  • Finding that second vendor is by far more accurate than first vendor (ex. fruit vs. banana)
  • Collecting back Project SmartKitchen prototypes from trial participants in Experiment #1 to update software that utilizes vendor 2 and will give the prototypes back out to participants to test vendor 2 in the wild.

Hypothesis 1: If we broadcast schedule content, then spur-of-the-moment attendees can quickly and confidently choose how to spend their time

Experiment#1: Use beacons at an event to broadcast room status. Using the aforementioned survey, use targeted interviews for floaters post View Source to see if Magnet helped them make decisions in the moment and if it was easier and faster than their usual methods.

• Project Magnet application has already been uploaded to the Apple store and Google Play!
• Blog post to announce Project Magnet in View Source.
• Metrics in Google analytic also ready
• Communication has already been agreed with Viewsource team and it's ready.
• Working in the View Source Handbook that include all the logistics, surveys and steps to validate the hypothesis and get the most incomes as we can.

Hypothesis 2: If attendees broadcast their social profiles, then social interaction will increase

Experiment 2 - Beacon give-away: We'll provide beacons to the first people that go to our booth showing that they have installed the app, help them to configure it and follow up with the them if that increased the number of interactions that they had during the conference and other possible uses.

• Working in the details in the View Source Handbook

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• Dino Tank Sprints Upcoming!
  • SF IoT Privacy Sprint, Sept 26 - 30
  • India Connecting Rural Women on the Inernet, mid-Nov
• 3 event coming in September
  • Jordanian leadership workshop
  • IoT Days India
  • Web of Things Indore

• Lowe's, a US home improvement retailer, integrated Amazon's Alexa with its series of smart home devices, called Iris. The first devices are thermostats, fans and light switches, with other Iris devices coming on board at a later time. Lowe’s also announced it is selling Iris products on Amazon for the first time.

• Deloitte released IoT adoption figures for the UK that show adoption of smart home gadgets flatlining in 2016 compared to 2015. The adoption of monitoring systems and thermostats is flat at 3% of the market, as well as that of smart lightning and appliances, at 2% of the UK market. Most popular IoT devices are smart TVs with 28% adoption, followed by wireless speakers (10%), fitness bands (9%) and smart watches (4%).

• Xiaomi is entering the smart home market with a value proposition of low cost and speed. Su Jun, the head of the company's appliances team: "Many of our products can be made in the factory, loaded onto trucks, shipped to warehouses, and delivered to customers all in one day." Jin Di, research manager with the Boston-based consulting firm IDC: "The low-price strategy may have gained it lots of fans early on. But it's not a long-term development strategy."

• The Economist wrote a feature on the cloud computing market. Amazon has the largest share, with over 30% of cloud services sales in Q2. It has ten times as much computing capacity as the next 14 cloud providers combined, according to Gartner. AWS’s sales in the past quarter were about three times the size of its closest competitor, Microsoft’s Azure. This business is the reason why its parent company was able to report its third consecutive record quarterly profit in July, after years of patchy results. IBM (7% market share) and Google (5%) follow Amazon and Microsoft.