There is this tendency to look at the numbers of shipping of smart speakers. If you look a little beyond in the future smart speakers will be a minor component in the intelligent assistants ecosystem. From stories with kids expecting Alexa to tell them the weather at a camping, to one yelling Bike stop! We can infer that voice is heading for ubiquitousness. And smart speakers are inherently static. So I think we are gonna see other devices popping up in the next couple of years with intelligent assistants. And here is where Apple might finally enter the actual competition. If the AirPods had some integration with a much improved Siri, and the same for the Apple Watch. I heard recently how companies are failing to see beyond what they are to what they can become in a voice first world. Each one of the big companies are applying their voice strategy to what they are today: Amazon ecommerce and computing, Google to search, Microsoft to productivity in the enterprise. One comment that specially reminds me of this is the one by Dave Isbitski, Chief Alexa Evangelist:

Thinking a lot lately about how #mobile is going to be lot more important to #voicefirst. I’m seeing people “try out voice” again on their phones. Could be we’re all getting used to talk to our tech now. I think smartphone may stay relevant as a go-to lot longer than thought.

https://twitter.com/thedavedev/status/1012391841055035392

Smartphones provide mobility, while smart speakers, provide a hands free experience. It seems natural to me that people want to extend the use of the smart speakers everywhere they go. And even more natural will be one device that can combine both capabilities: the true always- with-you personal assistant. So welcome the SiriPods or whatever might be called when developed.