Apple, Inc. has started the production of a new Apple Smart Speaker that uses the Artificial Intelligence technology of Siri. This is according to a report on Bloomberg.

It’s the company’s direct answer to Google Home and Amazon’s Echo. What sets it apart is surround sound and a tight integration with Apple products such as Apple Music and HomeKit.

 

Features

Apple’s Smart Speaker acts as a digital voice assistant in your living room or kitchen. It will be able to answer questions, set reminders, set timers among other functions. It can also control other smart devices such as lights and thermostats.

More importantly though, this will prevent Google and Amazon from dominating the Smart Home market. Apple will also be able to push its services that are compatible with voice control.

However, it won’t have a display unlike the recently launched Amazon Echo Show.

 

Apple Smart Speaker Price and Release Date

The report points to a launch of the Apple Smart Speaker during the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference that starts on June 5, 2017. Availability might be towards the end of the year though.

As for the price, there’s no information on that yet. People who’ll buy this won’t really care that much for the price tag, will they?