Bose and Amazon’s Alexa combine to produce a heavyweight in the smart speaker space
Bose teams up with Amazon‘s Alexa, connecting one of the world’s leading audio brands to a leader in the emerging smart speaker market. Bose’s newest speakers are completely compatible with Alexa’s voice assistant, aiming competition against Sonos and Apple‘s HomePod. Products included in the announcement are a new wireless smart speaker, the Home Speaker 500, and two new smart soundbars, the Soundbar 700 and Soundbar 500. They combine Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with multi-room sync options.
Bose mentioned other voice assistants will be added in the future, including Apple’s AirPlay 2, set to arrive early in 2019. One of the key differentiating factors in Bose’s proprietary mic technology is the ability for the virtual assistant to hear commands over louder listening levels.
All three speakers will be available in October. Their prices are $400 for the Home Speaker 500 – $50 more than Apple’s HomePod, $550 for the Soundbar 500, and $800 for the Soundbar 700. Differences between the soundbars include improved sound technology and an intelligent universal remote. With the help of Alexa, Bose is looking to take a major bite out of this year’s impending holiday season shopping spike.
H/T: CNET
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