Amazon Echo (Photo : Twitter)
Google will reportedly unveil a rival to Amazon's Echo known as Google Home at this year's Google I/O developer conference in Silicon Valley. The Internet of Things (IoT) device could be in the form of a smart speaker but it is only described as a voice-activated home device. Google Home will be able to take voice commands and answer questions like Amazon Echo.
News of Google's new wireless device was reported by The New York Times. The device will reportedly be unveiled at the Alphabet company's dev conference but will not ship until this fall.
It is uncommon for Google to provide early product demos. However, announcing Google Home would give third-party developers enough time to build integrations that could be available at launch, according to The Verge.
Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has a myriad of integrations but they have taken over a year to roll out. Google's head start could provide a better voice-command device at launch. It would likely support third-party integrations as I/O is a developer conference.
Amazon's Echo was unveiled less than two years ago. The tech company has sold more than an estimated 3 million units, according to The New York Times.
Apple's virtual assistant Siri was released in October 2011. However, Echo has become a major voice-activated device on the consumer market.
New features on Echo include the ability to call a car from ride-sharing company Uber, order a hot pizza from Domino's, and get election news updates from NBC.
Julie A. Ask is a Forrester Research analyst. She explained that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and other tech companies are developing virtual agents.
Ask pointed out that Google has let other tech companies catch up. Thus, it is important for the search giant to achieve success with Google Home as it struggled in social media and instant messaging.
Virtual agents that collect more information about interests, habits, and purchases can serve their owners better. However, they also raise issues such as privacy and information quality.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated at the 2014 dev conference that the California company wants to know when people are home with their family. Pichai was then head of Android phone software.
Here's Amazon's Echo Dot:
