While Siri (Apple), Alexa (Amazon), and Google Assistant (well, Google) are still waging battle over which digital voice assistant is the best, the other OEMs are actually thinking of developing their own, instead of just adapting these existing ones to their device. Samsung is reportedly in the final stages of their own product and now the latest rumor is that Huawei is also doing the same for their own smartphones and other devices. This may be good news for its users but bad news for Google.
Google has reportedly been trying to get third-party manufacturers to adapt its Google Assistant and pre-install it in their devices. But Huawei, which is the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world (just behind Apple and Samsung) is reportedly set to join in the battle of the digital voice assistants. They are still in the early stages, but a team of more than a hundred engineers are already working on it in their Shenzhen offices. And they really want to go up against the “big boys” and not just the minor players.
What will give them the advantage particularly in their local market is that this product will be communicating in Chinese. Many Google services are actually blocked in China, so having a really good digital assistant will help Huawei stand out in the already crowded domestic market. They will still continue working with either Google or Amazon for their other markets.
Just last month, Huawei announced that they were going with Amazon’s Alexa for their Mate 9 smartphones to be released in the US, which is a blow for Google of course. Currently, the Google Assistant is only available in the Google Pixel smartphones, Google Home, speaker, and smartwatches that will be running on Android Wear 2.0.
VIA: Bloomberg
