The next generation of smart speakers are likely to focus on improving sound quality, it has been claimed, with a second generation Amazon Echo expected to be the first to showcase this change.
Following on from Apple’s unveiling of the HomePod at WWDC in June – its own take on the smart speaker genre, but is heavily focusing on “reinventing home music” – reports in the US suggest rivals including Amazon are already looking to improve ahead of the HomePod going on-sale at the end of the year.
The HomePod will also include Apple’s virtual assistant Siri, but using the device for music streaming appears to be the primary function from Apple’s perspective.
This is in contrast to the Amazon Echo, which is built around the interactivity of talking to AI assistant Alexa.
But according to Engadget, plans are in place for the next Amazon Echo to house more tweeters – treble speakers – as well as switching the plastic outer shell of the Echo for a cloth-like casing in order to boost sound quality and more closely rival HomePod.
The report claims this new device is likely to be a new flagship Echo product, rather than an extension of the existing line-up like the Echo Dot or video-enabled Echo Show.
When Apple unveiled the HomePod, the tech giant quickly positioned it as a rival for existing speaker systems – for example Sonos – rather than the smart speaker products of Amazon and Google.
Since first appearing in the US in 2015 and the UK last year, the Echo has been a runaway hardware success for Amazon – with voice-enabled smart home hubs having fully entered the mainstream thanks to Echo and AI assistant Alexa.
Google has since launched Home, its own take on the product, while Microsoft has already begun to place its own virtual assistant Cortana into third party smart speakers.
Apple will join the race in December when the HomePod launches – though a UK price for the device is still to be confirmed.
