Apple is likely to unveil a brand new Siri-powered product at WWDC in June this year, according to KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo. In his recently published industrial report, Kuo mentioned an unknown product, by calling it “Apple’s first home AI product” and believes that the company will be launching it to compete with Amazon Echo and it will go on sale in the second half of this year.
Kuo does not provide a specific launch date for this unknown product and he believes that there are more than 50% chances that Apple will announce this new Siri Speaker product in June. This does leave some room for the chance of a change in plans or the launch is pushed back.
Kuo, in his report, suggests that this unknown new product will feature ‘excellent’ sound with subwoofer and seven tweeters. It will be positioned as a premium product than Amazon Echo and will carry a higher price tag to match, the report suggests.
Last week, Sonny Dickson – another guy with sources inside Apple partners, predicted the launch of Siri Speakers at WWDC of this year. He had also talked about the looks of the devices claiming that a trashcan Mac Pro inspired style design is on the table for this upcoming speaker. Kuo, however, does not provide any details related to the physical appearance of this product.
Kuo says in his report that Apple will enter in this space with superior performance and computing power, with a SoC similar to the one found on the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 6s. The device will be fully integrated with Siri, iOS, Mac, and the AirPlay, according to the report. Kuo also mentions in his report that the pace at which home AI market is growing, it has become almost impossible for Apple to ignore it. He predicts that Amazon’s Echo range could outsell Apple’s iPad lineup in 2018.
KGI’s analyst expects Apple to ship around 10 million units of this yet-to-be-announced Siri-powered product which he suggests will go on sale before the end of this year. He further adds that the product will be manufactured by Inventec, the same company responsible for manufacturing Apple’s truly wireless AirPods.
While Kuo seemed hesitant to predict the exact launch date for this new product, but its debut at WWDC does make a lot of sense if Apple has plans to integrate SDK with the Siri for the developers. In the long run, the analyst expects Apple to launch additional accessories similar to the Amazon Echo Dot, perhaps powered by Apple’s W1 chip.
Source: MacRumors
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