China’s two most international web giants, Alibaba and Baidu, have both announced embedded voice software and services similar to those of Amazon Alexa and Google Home, indicating the significant growth potential of the market for natural language applications backed up by machine learning. Alibaba announced Tmall Genie, based on a Mediatek processor and similar to the Amazon Echo. Rival Baidu announced two- and four-microphone far-field reference designs for its DuerOS software using Mediatek and Conexant chips, as well as support for Nvidia’s Shield TV streaming device. The growth in this market, particularly the voice recognition and processing elements, will be a boon to certain chip providers. The Echo, which has shipped an estimated 9m units in the US and UK,…