LG's Amazon Echo competitor will have Alexa functionality

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. LG's SmartThinQ, a competitor to Amazon's popular Echo device, will have third-party functionality from Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, according to TechCrunch. The new device is expected to be unveiled at the IFA conference in Berlin in October. SmartThinQ will not have all of Alexa's capabilities from launch, featuring only the more basic capabilities, such as playing music or checking the weather initially.