After a leak earlier today that revealed information about its upcoming product, Harman Kardon has officially unveiled the Invoke smart speaker that’s powered by Cortana. It’s basically an Amazon Echo rival that comes with Microsoft’s personal digital assistant baked in. It offers a wide variety of functions all of which can be controlled using voice commands. Since it’s a Harman Kardon product, customers can expect sublime audio quality as well.
The Harman Kardon Invoke looks quite similar to the Amazon Echo as far as the design is concerned. It has a cylindrical aluminum shape with a seven-microphone array and a light ring. All of that sounds quite familiar.
However, it kicks things up a notch in the audio department by also incorporating three woofers and three tweeters. This is miles ahead of the Echo which only has one of each driver.
Aside from Cortana, the Invoke also allows for control of smart home devices through voice commands as well as the ability to make and receive Skype calls to other Skype devices or cellphones and landlines.
This is the first attempt from Microsoft to challenge Amazon in the smart speaker market. The Echo devices have made a considerable impact on the market and as Amazon gears up to launch its first Echo with a display, we won’t be able to pick up an Invoke until this fall. Harman Kardon has also not confirmed the Invoke’s price right now.
Filed in . Read more about Amazon Echo, Cortana and Microsoft.