> If you buy a Google Home, you're basically fighting an uphill battle to use something other than Google Play music, right? If you have Comcast, then they make using Netflix a battle vs Comcast's own on demand video, how is that different?
It's different both because I can easily live without a Google Home in modern society, but not without the internet, and because there is actual competition in the Home assistant/automation market, where there is none in the ISP market in much of the US.
The necessity of the underlying service being controlled is significantly different, to the point many see the Internet as a utility, and the actual ability of a consumer to make a decision is wildly different.
>there is actual competition in the Home assistant/automation market, where there is none in the ISP market in much of the US.
What is your definition of an ISP? A cable company?
Dish is an ISP, the four major mobile operators are ISPs, Verizon even has fiber service in some areas. In most of the US, you have about as many choices in ISPs as you have in Google Home/Alexa/iWhatevers.
It's different both because I can easily live without a Google Home in modern society, but not without the internet, and because there is actual competition in the Home assistant/automation market, where there is none in the ISP market in much of the US.
The necessity of the underlying service being controlled is significantly different, to the point many see the Internet as a utility, and the actual ability of a consumer to make a decision is wildly different.