Spotify tipped to be making smart speaker to rival Apple’s Homepod
Spotify isn't going to sit idly by while Apple cleans up with its new Homepod smart speaker – the music streaming service could be planning an audio device of its own
SPOTIFY is working on a smart speaker to take on its music streaming rival Apple’s Homepod device.
The company is developing a line of “category defining” hardware products, and is ready to start on the manufacturing stage, according to job adverts on its recruitment site.
An ad for a senior product manager (hardware), last April, showed Spotify was looking to build “fully-connected hardware devices” akin to the “Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles.”
One of those companies (Pebble) went and another (Snap, parent company of Snapchat) to flog hundreds of thousands of its video-recording Spectacles. So, it’s safe to say that Spotify may be rethinking who to emulate.
That leaves the Amazon Echo – the leading smart speaker on the market. And, it seems Apple’s recent entry into the fray with its AI-enabled Homepod device has revitalised Spotify’s hardware ambitions.
Today, several hardware-oriented job ads (spotted by ) have been posted to its site. One of these states that “Spotify is on its way [to] creating its first physical products and set-up an operational organisation for manufacturing, supply chain, sales and marketing.”
The new recruit would oversee the supply chain for the new product, indicating that Spotify could be on the cusp of setting up the manufacturing process. Spotify refused to comment.
Spotify’s paid streaming service is the biggest around, with 60 million users (as compared to Apple Music’s 30 million members), and works with a variety of connected devices, including smart and regular speakers, car dashboards, smartwatches, and more, through Spotify Connect.
Apple’s decision to forego Spotify support on the Homepod, in favour of its own music streaming service, was bashed by some reviewers.
Critics claimed it could hamper the £319 speaker’s chances of success.
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