Apple May Soon Come Up With Its Own Version of This Amazon Product

Seeking to catch up to rivals in the realm of voice-controlled services, Apple soon will allow software developers to connect their apps to its Siri digital assistant for the first time, according to a report on Tuesday. Apple also may offer a device similar to the Amazon Echo voice-controlled speaker, according to the report on The Information tech news web site. The report, citing anonymous sources, said Apple will soon release a software development kit allowing other companies to integrate their apps and services with Siri, while the company is still developing the "smart" speaker project. Amazon, by contrast, has partnered with numerous other companies so that owners of its Echo speaker can use the device to call an Uber car, order a Domino's pizza or play music from Spotify. Google last week announced it too would offer a voice-controlled speaker device, dubbed Google Home, that would also be open to third party services.