It looks like Amazon’s Alexa is destined for more than speakers and Fire TV as it looks to be coming to a wearable near you. Amazon used the ramp-up to CES to announce new development tools that will allow Alexa to be a part of more than just those few things listed. From microwaves to dishwashers, the Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit will allow Alexa to use Bluetooth enabled products.
Of course, this means that smartwatches, audio devices, fitness trackers and the like could benefit from Amazon’s smart assistant. There are a few companies that take advantage of the kit. They include Beyerdynamic, Bose, Bowers and Wilkins, iPhone, Jabra, Librewireless, and Linkplay. Amazon did point out that Bose had a hand in developing the kit.
“Bose is excited to add a remarkable new Alexa experience for our customers,” Brian Maguire, Director of Product Management at Bose, stated. “Accessing Alexa’s music, information, and vast number of skills on our headphones will become easier than ever, and we’re looking forward to bringing our collaboration to life.”
While companies like Bose have products integrated with Google Assistant, they could use the mobile accessory kit to take open up further adoption of their products by those that don’t use Google or Apple digital assistants and prefer Amazon’s. Google has its home series and Apple is about to release the HomePod this quarter. The kit will allow other companies to compete further in a smart assistant segment that’s quickly expanding. Not only will it allow these other companies to compete, but it will help Amazon gain more traction in that market. However, these devices won’t come with Alexa built in and will rather connect to the Alexa app via Bluetooth.
Amazon also announced a second developer kit. Amazon is gearing the Alexa Premium Voice Development Kit for commercial device makers. According to the online retailer, it will allow these companies to add far-field, high-quality voice experiences in their products. How that shakes down for the end user is anyone’s guess though.
Either way, if you’re a developer looking to make use of the mobile accessory kit, you can do so by going here. Be sure to check out the Amazon developer’s page if you’re interested in the premium voice development kit. That said, it’ll be interesting to see if CES has anymore Alexa related news in store.
Does the idea of Alexa coming to more devices excite you? Let us know by leaving your comments down below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/05/alexa-is-coming-to-wearable-devices-including-headphones-smartwatches-and-fitness-trackers/?ncid=mobilenavtrend” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Tech Crunch[/button]Last Updated on December 26, 2019.
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