Amazon Alexa Now Supports Apple Podcasts in Over 40 Countries

('https://www.macrumors.com/2023/10/19/amazon-alexa-apple-podcasts-40-countries/')

Alexa now natively supports Apple Podcasts on Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV devices in over 40 countries following the latest expansion of this integration.



Apple Podcasts for Alexa is now available in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Türkiye, the U.K., and the U.S., according to an Apple support document ('https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210759') updated today.

This integration allows you to ask Alexa to play podcasts from the Apple Podcasts app. You can link your Apple ID in the Alexa app to keep playback in sync across your Apple devices and supported Alexa devices. For example, you can start listening to a podcast episode through the Apple Podcasts app on CarPlay during your commute, and continue listening with your Echo speaker at home by asking Alexa to resume the podcast.

Apple Podcasts can also be set as your preferred podcast platform in the Alexa app.

For more details about this integration between Alexa and Apple Podcasts, including how to set it up, read Apple's support document.

Article Link: Amazon Alexa Now Supports Apple Podcasts in Over 40 Countries ('https://www.macrumors.com/2023/10/19/amazon-alexa-apple-podcasts-40-countries/')

Partnerships like this are clearly mutually beneficial. (The hackneyed old term was “Win-Win.”)

More revenue and profits for Apple always equals more R&D, more acquisitions, more hiring of talent; more greater, new and innovative Apple products. People ceaselessly complain about Apple’s high profit margins, but the company ALWAYS plows profits back into developing and expanding.

I just wish AAPL stock didn’t pay a dividend and they kept those profits instead and used them for R&D, strategic acquisitions, poaching talent (preferably of gifted engineers who left Apple for Nuvia or Rivos or Qualcomm or Google or the Borg). Shareholders don’t need to get paid. ? They should be in your stock for its potential for appreciation as an investment. Period. I’d settle for giving dividends to employees, but not to people who don’t do any work.

Digression over.

Even though millions of Apple Podcasts are completely free, this agreement ultimately garners wider exposure for the Apple Brand, and increased goodwill and increased Brand Equity. It’ll pay off in Brand Loyalty.

(btw, the term “Podcast” would not have existed were it not for the iPod. This globally recognized term “Podcast” stems from the iPod Brand Name. The iPod was the original medium for listening to “Podcasts.” So, the now superannuated iPod lives on…nominally…)

I just wish Apple would change its mind about including the company name in every new product and service it introduces.

Take away the “Apple” in “Apple Watch,” and you’re left with “Watch.”

Take away the “Apple” in “Apple TV,” and you’re left with “TV.”

Take away the “Apple” in “Apple Music,” and you’re left with “Music.”

Take away the “Apple” in “Apple Vision,” and you’re left with “Vision.”

etc.



I wish Apple would go back to Steve Jobs’ and Phil Schiller’s method of protecting its corporate Brand from dilution (and what I call, “the Nokia effect”), by inventing new Brands that are singular in nature and have meanings all their own, absent the Apple name, like,

iMac
iTunes/iTunes Store
iPod
iPhone
iPad

Everyone knew who made these products, yet I never heard anyone say, “I bought an Apple iPod,” they just called it “iPod.”

Apple as a corporation is doing fine right now, but Marketing effects play out over a long period of time, and can haunt a company down the road.

Nokia’s problem was including their corporate Brand as a full part of every phone model’s Brand Name, making it impossible to communicate one of their phone model‘s names to someone without the need to include “Nokia.”

Some Nokia phone model Brands included: Nokia 1 Plus, Nokia XR20, Nokia X10, Nokia C21 Plus.

e.g. “Hey, I just bought a ‘1 Plus’! >>” “Good for you. And what the hell is a ‘1 Plus’?”

It nothing like saying, “I bought an iPhone.”

The result was, Nokia became a singular, phone-only Brand and never could’ve succeeded in any other product category if it wanted to grow and expand its business. (A “Nokia PC”? I don’t think so.)

Nokia’s global share of the “smartphone” market was once over 51%. Now it hardly registers in the latest 2023 figures:



Nor does it seem to register here, unless it’s contained in “Unknown” or “Other ('https://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/worldwide/').”

Now look at Meta’s (separated) Social Media Brands:

facebook
Instagram
Whatsapp

And look how they’ve succeeded:


Look at WhatsApp‼️

(And just look where Twitter/X falls!)

(Also, you can see how it’s proven wise of Google not to have changed YouTube’s Brand Name after it acquired them.)

Apple can do better than the generic, unexciting, uninspiring “Vision Pro” Brand Name.

Not exactly “catchy.” I know Apple can do better. They’ve done it plenty of times before.
˙

Now it would become so easy to ask Alexa to play Apple Podcasts beside Apple Music, no need to argue with Siri to do anything :p

What’s a podcast

This so much. I think they've been around for 15-20 yesrs and I still don't really know, or care ?

Too bad HomePod is still saying "Sorry, there was a problem with Podcasts" whenever it gets to the news part of my “Hey Siri, what's my update?” request – yet Podcasts is now working on a totally distinct platform? ?

I have an Echo Show that came with my Ring video doorbell.

No matter what I ask Alexa, she always responds with, “Would you like to play a game?” or, “OK. You want to play a game,” and then shows some panels with a cartoon pig or hippo on it or something…

And if I ask Siri on my HomePod what the weather is, she always says, “I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?”

(Women…amIrite?)

This is why I regret buying Echo Dots. It is redundant to Siri.

As someone who has a bunch of Echo Show displays scattered around the house because they’re so cheap, but also has a vast and well integrated Apple ecosystem, including HomePods everywhere, I appreciate this ongoing improvement in integration between Alexa and Apple.

- iCloud Calendar has synched with Alexa for a while
- Matter on Echos is integrating with HomeKit
- Apple Music plays on Echo
- Now Podcasts too.

Would be great if you could sync your Apple Reminders to Alexa tasks. I have grocery lists scattered among the two and there doesn’t seem to be any way to elegantly combine them, including with third parties like IFTTT.