On May 3, 2017, Patently Apple posted a report titled "Inventec Lands First Order for Apple's Echo-Like Home Device with Siri." Now all of a sudden Bloomberg wakes up to tell us the big scoop that we already knew for almost a month. Yet the Bloomberg report did add that "Apple hopes that more advanced acoustics technology will give the speaker an edge over competitors, according to people with knowledge of the product’s development. Along with generating virtual surround sound, the speakers being tested are louder and reproduce sound more crisply than rival offerings, the people said. Apple has also considered including sensors that measure a room’s acoustics and automatically adjust audio levels during use, one of the people said." That could be referring to Apple's latest audio invention. You could read the full Bloomberg report here.

Earlier today Patently Apple reported that HP is going to debut a home speaker device this fall with Microsoft's Cortana. The report also illustrated that Samsung is working on a similar idea and that in general, the AI wars are reaching a fever pitch level with all major device makers jumping on the speaker device trend that could be the heart of any future smart home system.

Even start-up Essential Products that's run by former Google Executive Andy Rubin introduced a home hub speaker device with a unique 5" round display ahead of Apple. Ouch.

We can only hope that Apple, almost being last to the party, can deliver a superior home device with clear cut advantages and not just a me-too product. Will Jony Ive deliver? Only time will tell.

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SIDE NOTE: Apple's latest Siri patent had a patent figure pointing to a new home hub speaker device that you could check out here.