Park University began development of the Park University skill for Amazon Alexa in the Fall of 2017. Park University chose the Amazon Alexa platform for its first foray into voice computing because it is the most mature and most widely sold voice-assistant platform on the market.
The Amazon Echo is also the only voice-assistant currently available that features video in some of its devices (Echo Show and Echo Spot). The Amazon Alexa platform has also been embraced by major corporations like HP, Lenovo, Motorola, HTC, Ford, Toyota, BMW, Sony, LG, Kohler and more and will be incorporated into many of their upcoming products being released in 2018.
At the time of release for "ask Park," the Park University skill, Amazon had more than 70 million Echo/Alexa devices sold in the U.S. Amazon began producing their Echo/Alexa devices and service in 2014. Google Home was released in late 2016 and sold just under 7 million units in its first year. Apple's HomePod is the newest addition to the voice-assistant market and was released in February of 2018.
We believe the proliferation of Amazon Alexa in this market gives the Park University skill the best chance for success and adoption. That is not to discount the Google Home or Apple HomePod. The university is exploring porting the Park University skill to these platforms as they grow in popularity.
