A new report claims that Lenovo has been speaking with Amazon about possibly adding support for the company’s Alexa digital assistant in its PCs and other devices. If true, it could pose a challenge to Microsoft’s Cortana assistant that’s embedded in Windows 10.
The report comes from CNET, which states:
Lenovo, the world’s biggest PC maker, has held talks with Amazon on potentially using Alexa in its computers and other devices, according to a Lenovo executive with knowledge of the talks. The executive declined to provide more details.
The report adds that while there have been talks between Lenovo and Amazon, it’s still early and nothing has been set in stone:
It’s unclear how Lenovo might use Alexa in its computers, if at all. It’s also unclear whether the voice assistant would work with or replace Microsoft’s Cortana, which already lives in many PCs. “We consider things all the time and we’ve looked at it,” the Lenovo executive said. “But there’s nothing on the roadmap.” Amazon declined to comment.
Alexa made its debut when Amazon launched its Echo connected speaker in 2014. Alexa has since expanded to other Amazon hardware devices, and will be added to Sonos speakers in 2017.
Lenovo launched its REACHit search assistant on its Windows PCs a few years ago, and added support for Microsoft’s Cortana in 2015. However, recently Lenovo announced that the REACHit app will become unusuable by Sept. 12.
