Earlier this year, Google unveiled their answer to Amazon’s Echo in the form of Google Home. A tiny speaker that will come with Google Assistant as its AI/voice assistant of choice. Now according to a report from Variety, they have learnt that there is a possibility of Google Assistant finding its way to third-party hardware in the future.
According to the report, it seems that Google is in negotiations with consumer electronics manufacturers about loading Google Assistant onto their devices. However before you get too excited, it seems that these negotiations aren’t really going as planned simply because Google is trying to impose their will by stating that either they make Google Assistant exclusive to their hardware, or there is no deal at all.
Variety’s source claims that this, and other “far-reaching demands” have led to talks breaking down. This doesn’t mean that the idea has been binned, but for now it seems to be at some kind of impasse. Assuming this is true, it certainly does look like Google is following in the footsteps of Amazon who have opened up their Alexa platform to other companies.
There have been talks that Apple is also planning a similar device with Siri, so it will be interesting to see if Apple will be more flexible then. In the meantime Google Home’s pricing and availability is expected to be unveiled on the 4th of October, so check back with us this Tuesday for the details.
Filed in . Read more about Connected Objects, Google, Google Assistant, Google Home and IoT (Internet of Things).