Alexa Is Ready To Leave Home

Earphones and wearables are a natural fit for Alexa's next move. Google and Apple, Amazon's main hardware competitors in the voice assistant space, already have wireless earbuds, the Pixelbuds and AirPods, imbued with their own respective digital assistants. For now, however, Amazon isn't making audio hardware itself--it's letting third-party brands and manufacturers take charge of that task. Amazon has been testing and refining the kit with Bose, and the kit itself will be available more broadly later this year. Several other audio and mobile accessory makers have also begun integrating Alexa into their products, including Beyerdynamic, Bowers and Wilkins, Jabra, and iHome.