Apple’s Amazon Echo Competitor Said to Be Refreshed Apple TV: Report

Sources tell Venture Beat Apple’s so-called competitor to the Amazon Echo, the latter’s voice-powered speaker assistant, will actually come in the form of a refreshed Apple TV:

Apple is working on its answer to Amazon’s Echo, the voice-activated assistant packaged inside a speaker, but it may come in the form of a refreshed Apple TV, rather than a new hardware product, VentureBeat has learned.

The fourth generation Apple TV launched last year saw the debut of Siri on the big screen, and the next iteration aims to better implement issues related to the existing hardware and remote control, claims an unnamed source, saying “They want Apple TV to be just the hub of everything.”

Currently, the new Apple TV remote is the only place for the unit’s microphone, and the controller requires charging. The future version will have a mic built into the main unit itself, and be able to handle more complex computing to process voice queries.

Just yesterday The Information reported Apple was set to open up Siri for developers and release an SDK, while also had planned new hardware to rival the Amazon Echo. Earlier this month, Google released Home, their own voice-powered Echo competitor in the U.S.

Earlier this week, Brian Roemmele claimed Apple’s upcoming plans for “Siri2” will be based on the company’s acquisition of VocalIQ, a small Cambridge, England-based voice artificial intelligence firm, from last fall.

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