By John P. Mello Jr.
May three, 2017 10:31 AM PT
Odds seem good that Apple might be becoming a member of Amazon and Google within the sensible speaker competitors with a Siri-powered system it plans to introduce at its World Wide Developers Conference subsequent month, based on MacRumors, which cited a report by Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities.
The new home-AI product may have wonderful acoustics with one woofer and 7 tweeters, and the processing energy of an iPhone 6, Kuo wrote. Its price ticket possible might be greater than Amazon’s Echo, which sells for US$179.
Rumors of an Apple speaker have been floating round for a while: The Information reported that Apple was making ready an Echo competitor a yr in the past, and Bloomberg final September reported that Apple had begun testing a prototype of the system.
The speaker could have a digital camera, which could possibly be used for facial recognition. It possible will management different units — locks, lights, home equipment, curtains and such — by voice instructions issued by Siri.
Battle for the Home
Entry into the sensible speaker market is sensible for an organization with sensible house aspirations.
“As the success of Echo and Google Home took off, everyone expected Apple to follow suit,” mentioned Brad Russell, a analysis analyst with Parks Associates.
Battle traces are being drawn over who may have the dominant voice expertise within the house.
“Consumers have really responded to voice control, and the Echo has accelerated that,” Russell instructed TechNewsWorld.
“It’s pretty much accepted now that voice is the interface of the future,” he mentioned. “It makes adoption of devices much more frictionless, because you don’t have to learn a different user interface for every product.”
Apple already has a voice beachhead within the house with Apple TV.
“What it doesn’t have is a central standup device like Google or Amazon,” noticed Jonathan Collins, a analysis director for ABI Research.
“Those devices have proven to be popular, and they provide a key focus and key introduction to the smart home,” he instructed TechNewsWorld.
Tough Competition
The Apple speaker is prone to have nice sound output, however sound will not be the one characteristic to justify the premium value the corporate possible will cost for the product.
“It will probably be an important of part Apple HomeKit so they can link it to other smart home devices,” mentioned Kevin Krewell, a principal analyst with Tirias Research.
“One of the uses of these smart speakers is for home automation control,” he instructed TechNewsWorld. “This would be an opportunity for Apple to attach a voice-based device to HomeKit.”
However, Siri will discover it tough to problem a few of the gamers already entrenched available in the market.
“I don’t see it as a great competitor to Google Home, which has a tie-in to Google’s deep knowledge base,” Krewell mentioned.
Amazon’s Echo, with its Alexa voice assistant, additionally will pose robust competitors, largely due to its rising associate community.
“Alexa has led the way in third-party integration,” mentioned Ross Rubin, the principal analyst with Reticle Research.
“It’s very easy to pass on a request from Alexa to another product, and Amazon has been very aggressive in courting third-party devices,” he instructed TechNewsWorld.
Siri Lost First Advantage
It’s commonplace for Apple to attend for a market to develop earlier than it strikes in for the kill. It did that with the iPod, in addition to with the smartphone and pill laptop. In the case of voice assistants, although, it failed to take advantage of its first-to-market benefit.
“Apple’s Siri was actually the first digital assistant to widely impact the market, but the company has leveraged the technology less than might be expected,” noticed Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
“That left an opening for Amazon Alexa and Google Home,” he instructed TechNewsWorld. “The larger question now is how well Apple can compete in a young but rapidly maturing market.”
However, Apple nonetheless has lots to deliver to the desk, famous Parks’ Russell. It has 120 HomePackage units, and safety has been one of many hallmarks of its method to the sensible house.
“When you couple rising security concerns by consumers with Apple’s well-known higher security standards, that will position them well in the market,” he mentioned.
Also, regardless of the timing considerations, Apple’s monitor report is difficult to disregard.
“Apple has a history of success when it enters settled markets and out-innovates other vendors,” King mentioned. “We’ll see if the company can work some of it’s old magic here.” 
John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus embrace cybersecurity, IT points, privateness, e-commerce, social media, synthetic intelligence, large information and client electronics. He has written and edited for quite a few publications, together with the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.
