When Amazon first started with Amazon Echo, they were the only major name working on a speaker based assistant. However, over the years, the race has become quite intense as it is now a three-way battle between Amazon, Google and Apple. Late last year Google introduced the Google Home, and a couple of months ago, Apple brought to us the Homepod. It looks like we are soon going to get a Facebook smart speaker, as reports indicate a launch in early 2018.
If proven to be true, this would be the first ever hardware launch from Facebook. Reports indicate that what makes this Facebook smart speaker different from Amazon Echo and Google Home would be the fact that it would not take input via voice but would rather depend upon a touchscreen panel. It would come with a 15 inch touchscreen for input.
This Facebook smart speaker is being developed by Facebook’s Building 8 division - Facebook’s lab where innovative products are created and tested in secret. Reports from Taiwan suggest that the Facebook smart speaker would be developed by Pegatron technologies, the company which has been known to create iPhones for Apple and Surface devices for Microsoft.
Interestingly, details indicate that this Facebook smart speaker would be coming out into the markets with a magnesium-aluminum-alloy chassis and will feature a 15-inch in-cell LCD touchscreen. This LCD touchscreen would be made by LG. Facebook’s aim here is to create as superior listening experience. The other competing devices are more about the AI than about the audio experience.
This Facebook smart speaker is expected to release in the first quarter of 2018. As of now these are the only details about the device which have been spotted in reports. More specific details and pricing is still a mystery. Stay tuned with us for more detail on the device.
