Huawei to pre-load Amazon’s Alexa AI on US version of its Mate 9 flagship
Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant is having a good CES. Not only landing inside additional speaker hardware but finding entirely new incarnations in other connected household items — such as a lamp , a smart fridge and even a robot vacuum cleaner. Cars are on its roadmap too.
But it’s also now heading into third party smartphone hardware, with Chinese Android OEM Huawei announcing it will be pre-loading the AI assistant into the US version of its Mate 9 flagship smartphone.
Huawei launched its flagship Mate 9 phablet in Europe and Asia late last year without the Alexa pre-load so it’s evidently hoping to raise its profile in the US with the help of Amazon’s ecommerce empire. According to Phys.org , the handset will be available in the US in “early 2017”.
The smartphone voice assistant landscape is very fiercely contested, with Apple’s now long-in-the-tooth Siri assistant battling it out with Google’s redoubled efforts, in the form of an upgraded Google Assistant, currently available on its own hardware and via its Allo cross-platform messaging app; meanwhile last year Samsung acquired Siri creators’ next effort, Viv to push its own AI platform smarts; and Microsoft has opened up access to its cross-platform Cortana AI .
For Android OEMs that don’t have the resources to acquire or develop their own AI voice smarts, Amazon’s Alexa looks to be lining up as an attractive pre-load option, especially for markets such as the US where the ecommerce giant dominates online shopping.
In other words: it’s the services , stupid. So it seems unlikely Huawei will be the only OEM seeking to boost handset sales with an Alexa pre-load.
Speaking to TechCrunch yesterday , analyst Gartner talked up the growing opportunity for voice-driven connected devices, arguing that consumers are looking for “different ways of interacting with their devices”, and for devices that can provide “a better experience”.
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Huawei has made a name for itself by partnering with Google on the final Nexus phone and selling affordable, feature-packed handsets in China, but now the company is looking to stand on its own in the U. S. Not only is it finally launching its 6.9-inch Mate 9 phablet to the States, it’s bringing along a new friend along for the trip: Alexa.
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