Apple Building Amazon Echo Rival And Opening Up Siri To App Developers: Report

Apple is planning to launch a rival to Amazon's popular Echo connected speaker that will be powered by its voice-activated digital assistant Siri -- a feature the company is also planning to finally open up to developers, sources told the Information. The report, quoting sources with knowledge of Apple's plans, said the Echo rival was in development long before Amazon launched its product in 2014. However, it is still not clear when Apple plans to launch the device. There is also no indication in the report what the device would look like or how much it would cost. Last week, Google launched its own version of Amazon's Echo called Home, which will go on sale in the coming months.