Amazon has a variety of Echo speakers available already, including the Echo Show with a 5.5-inch display that it announced earlier this year. But it sounds like it has another one on the way.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Amazon is currently working on a new Echo smart speaker that will more directly compete with the HomePod from Apple, and other high quality Sonos-branded speakers. The goal? Offer up a better Echo speaker in terms of sound quality.
Details are still relatively light at the time of publication, but the publication does state that the new speaker will launch sometime by “next year”. The current prototypes for the new speaker reportedly feature four tweeters, which would compare to the seven internal tweeters present within the HomePod.
The report also indicates that Amazon will be launching “minor updates” at some point this fall, but there are no additional details to go on for now.
This is not the first time Amazon has tried to offer up an Echo speaker that features better audio quality. The Echo Plus, which debuted in September of 2017, for instance, was meant to offer up better audio quality while listening to music. However, it does not come close to what the HomePod, or other Sonos speakers, can bring into a home.
It sounds like whatever this new Echo speaker is, it will be designed specifically to focus on audio quality, with the Echo smart features attached as an added bonus — mostly how the HomePod works. That would be a concerted shift for Amazon, considering that the majority of its Echo smart speakers are meant to push the Alexa digital assistant and the Amazon shopping experience, rather than audio quality.
If this speaker does make it beyond the prototype phase, we will likely be hearing more about it in the months ahead.
Would you be interested in a new Echo speaker that focuses more on audio quality?