The smart home device field is growing crowded these days.
With Amazon’s Echo currently holding the critics’ darling spotlight, last week Google debuted ‘Home’, its new voice-activated home automation system while this week tech site The Information is exclusively reporting that Apple is working on an Echo-like device.
The report points to Apple’s release of a software development kit (SDK) that opens its Siri personal assistant platform to outside app developers—allowing them to make their own apps accessible through Siri.
According to The Information, the new Apple device, which reportedly has been in production before the arrival of Amazon’s Echo last year, will have integration with Apple’s HomeKit—a platform systems integrators have been waiting to see take off in a meaningful way for some time. The device will also reportedly, like Echo, have a speaker and like most Apple devices, support Airplay.
The Apple home assistant device is predicted to make its debut at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in mid-June.