Amazon is quickly establishing market dominance in the home automation sector. In less than two years Alexa has gone from fringe product to household name, forcing competitors like Google to play catch up.
CES 2017 further solidified Amazon’s edge by being filled with new products that come with Alexa. Samsung, LG, Linksys, and even Mattel are showing off products that either come with Alexa out of the box or are Alexa-integrated.
Get full CES coverage: CES 2017 Special Coverage (CNET) | CES 2017 (TechRepublic) | CES 2017: The Big Trends for Business (ZDNet)
Alexa may have started life on Amazon-made products, but it surely isn’t staying there. Lenovo Smart Assistant is just one of the third-party products that come with Alexa onboard.
Why buy a Lenovo-made unit that looks nearly identical to the Echo? Lenovo claims its speaker is better.
Here’s another example of third-party Echo units. This one is made by smartphone paraphernalia manufacturer Omaker.
Aristotle isn’t just another third-party speaker–it’s a third-party speaker designed to interact with your children. It boasts all of Alexa’s functionality, which can still be accessed by saying “Hey, Alexa,” but it comes with a second personality onboard: Aristotle.
Saying “Hey, Aristotle” brings up a kid-friendly virtual assistant who can deal with the entire “why” phase of child development.
Bixi is a gesture control unit that allows you to do things on your smartphone with the wave of a hand. It also connects into various smart devices so you can control your thermostat, lights, and other things with a gesture.
The first Bixi isn’t even on sale in the US yet, but Bixi 2.0 was just announced at CES with Alexa integration. I guess now you can wave at Alexa to get her attention?
This space age lamp is basically an Amazon Echo with a glowing ring slapped on top of it.
The top portion of the C by GE is a voice-controlled light, but the rest is a standard Alexa unit: microphones, circuits, and speakers are all there just like less flashy products.
LG is ready to rumble with Samsung for smart fridge supremacy. So far LG’s InstaView sounds like the better product: It has Alexa on board and you can knock twice on the touchscreen to turn it translucent, giving you a perfect view of your chilled food.
Don’t want to command Alexa from the kitchen? You don’t have to if you have the LG Hub robot. It’s designed to be a true hub for an LG-powered smarthome, and it’s powered by Alexa.
No word on whether it will talk to non-LG products.
Incipio, another manufacturer of smartphone accessories, is getting in on the smart home game with a power strip and light switch that both communicate with Alexa. Now you don’t even have to exert the energy to clap to turn a light off or on.
Whirlpool announced that many of its new washers and dryers will integrate with Alexa, giving you the power to start, stop, and check the remaining time on a load from wherever Alexa can hear you.
Floor looking a bit dirty? Tell Alexa to vacuum it and Samsung’s answer to the Roomba will get it done.
One of the drawbacks of smart TV systems is typing: TVs simply weren’t made for it, and onscreen keyboards are a pain.
Dish Network seems to feel the same way, which is why its new Hopper DVR can be controlled by Alexa. Watching TV has never been easier.
ADT’s newest security system will take commands from Alexa, allowing you to arm or disarm the system as well as lock or unlock doors with the power of your voice.
Nightingale is a noise-cancelling system that is marketed as a sleep aid. It can generate all sorts of noises, and now it connects with Alexa, allowing users to activate and adjust its settings with voice commands.
Sensory is adding its own VoiceGenie system to its Bluetooth headsets, which means you can connect Alexa, Siri, Cortana, or any other digital assistant you choose.
The Velop is Linksys’ home Wi-Fi mesh product, and it’s adding Alexa to make operating it a bit easier.
It will only launch with the ability to turn the guest network on or off and to read your Wi-Fi password out loud. Hopefully new commands will be added over time.
Conway’s Airmega is its state-of-the-art air purifier and humidifier, and it just got a bit better by adding Alexa integration.
Airmega settings can be changed, it can be turned off or on, and you can even get a summary of the air quality in your home–all by voice command.
Brandon is a Staff Writer for TechRepublic. He's an award-winning feature and how-to writer who previously worked as an IT professional and served as an MP in the US Army.
