HP Joins Harman Kardon in Bringing Cortana to Smart Speakers
Microsoft is expanding its reach in the voice assistant market, announcing today that HP has signed on to build Cortana-enabled smart speakers. This follows the earlier announcement of Harman Kardon’s Invoke, which was the first device to integrate Cortana. Intel is also joining the race and will soon release reference designs for Cortana-enabled devices.
This partnership strategy is somewhat unexpected, as Microsoft typically builds its own hardware, as seen with the Surface line. However, the company is opting to let hardware partners handle the production of these voice-activated devices.
There are rumors that Microsoft is considering a different approach to compete with the Echo and Google Home. The company is reportedly working on a “HomeHub” feature for Windows 10, which will offer a dedicated hub for managing home tasks and information. This feature is envisioned to be more integrated with the PC experience than a standalone speaker.
While specifics regarding HP’s Cortana-enabled device are still under wraps, Microsoft is expected to release more information shortly.
In addition to new hardware partnerships, Microsoft also announced that Cortana Skills, its framework for developing skills for Cortana, is now in public preview. Previously only accessible to select partners, this toolkit is now available for developers in the United States.
