Facebook’s Echo Show Rival May Cost $499

It appears that Google isn’t the only company that’s thinking about developing an Amazon Echo Show rival. According to a new report, Facebook is working on a similar product called Portal and that it’s going to priced at $499.

The Amazon Echo Show was the first Alexa-enabled device from Amazon to feature a touchscreen display. It provides a wide range of features to users backed up by its intelligent personal assistant Alexa.

Portal is also going to be Facebook’s first consumer hardware device since the ill-fated “Facebook phone” that it developed in partnership with HTC back in 2013. It was a phenomenal flop.

Facebook’s secretive Building 8 lab is reportedly behind the Portal project. This is going to be the first finished hardware product from this division of the company.

The $499 device will reportedly be marketed to customers as a communal hub for video chats with friends and family. Portal is said to be the first of many Facebook products to come for the home. It will rely on advanced computer vision technologies to identify people through the device’s camera and pair them with Facebook accounts.

The report claims that Facebook is going to launch Portal in May this year. The timeline coincides with Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference which would be the perfect stage for the company to unveil this product.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: echo show, Facebook