Japan's smart speaker market heats up as Line faces off against Google and Amazon

The battle for smart-speaker supremacy in Japan has begun, with major firms announcing the launches Thursday of new products armed with high-tech voice-controlled features. With the aim of taking the lead in the AI powered smart-speaker market, which many observers believe will become the next major trend, Line Corp. and Google both debuted their new products for the Japanese market the same day. "The smartphone era began 10 years ago, but we are about to enter a new era where everything will be connected to the internet and optimized by AI," said Jun Masuda, chief strategy and marketing officer at Line, during a news conference Thursday at the firm's headquarters in Tokyo. Line said its Clova Wave speaker is now available online for ¥14,000. Masuda said the critical aspect of the coming era will be gadgets equipped with AI voice agents allowing voice control. Tech firms have been gearing up to develop AI smart-speaker platforms, which are expected to create a new secondary market similar to how smartphones created a huge market for apps.