BGR – No One is Going to Use Microsoft’s Answer to the Amazon Echo

Chris Mills of BGR argues that Microsoft’s HomeHub, its answer to the Amazon Echo, will be dead on arrival once it launches. HomeHub is supposed to be the center of the family home with a “Welcome Screen” that will organize calendar appointments, to-do lists and shopping lists for the whole family. But Mills isn’t buying it and he gave four specific reasons as to why:

1. Sales of desktop PCs are already steadily declining.
2. On the lowest end, a HomeHub PC will retail for $300 while the Amazon Echo Dot typically retails for $49.99 (and even less this holiday season)
3. Having a PC in the kitchen can be obstrusive, while the Echo and Google Home were designed to look like normal bluetooth speakers that blend into their surroundings.
4. Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home already integrate with a number of different apps and there is no mention that the “HomeHub” will have the same capabilities.

These are all valid points, but Mills is missing one key insight. Amazon is rumored to be working on an Amazon Echo that will also have a screen. It will be smaller than Microsoft’s HomeHub and potentially retail for less. And it could be announced before the first HomeHub update is released, making the HomeHub obsolete before it even had a chance.