A rumor has surfaced on the Web claiming that Apple is currently baking its smart speaker that will soon rival Amazon Echo. It further claims the company will soon open up its Siri voice assistant to third-party app developers.
The report comes from The Information that cites its source who is familiar with this purported Cupertino-based firm’s latest effort.
“After years of internal debate and discussion about how to do so, the company is preparing to open up Siri to apps made by others,” reads the report. “And it is working on an Amazon Echo-like device with a speaker and microphone that people can use to turn on music, get news headlines or set a timer.”
The report says that a Siri software development kit is the company’s “more immediate step.” The said SDK will be made available to developers who wish their apps to be more accessible via the company’s voice assistant. In the meantime, the Amazon Echo’s competitor seems to be Apple’s more long-term project.
The Siri SDK is believed to be rolled out this coming June, during the company’s yearly WWDC conference.
The Apple’s smart speaker is speculated to have been in the works prior to the release of the Amazon Echo. Among the functionalities that will be fitted into the speaker include the capacity to carry out a few tasks currently associated with automated bots plus its capability to switch on and off appliances that are supported by the firm’s HomeKit platform.
This new Apple rumor comes hot on the heels of Google’s announcement of its very own artificial intelligence assistant named Google Assistant and its home speaker called Google Home. The Mountain View-based company, though, has not unveiled an SDK for its home speaker. A possibility exists, though, that it may introduce one in the succeeding months.
“For Apple to stay competitive in this space — and make up the substantial ground its ceded to its rivals — it has to make Siri more open and more powerful,” says a report from The Verge. “From there, the company can try to bake it into a speaker customers may want to place in their living rooms.”
As always in this case, take this story with a considerable dose of skepticism.
