The next Amazon Echo may be a high-end speaker, followed by an Alexa home robot

Amazon is alleged to be engaged on a higher-end Echo sensible speaker, based on a new report right now, and that is no shock given how profitable Sonos and Google have been with extra highly effective variations of their sensible audio system.

This high-quality Echo packs extra audio parts into a wider body than prior fashions, stories Bloomberg, but it ought to nonetheless retain its signature cylindrical form. It will embody at the very least 4 tweeters, stated individuals conversant in the product.

It’s an apparent transfer for Amazon, which has already cornering the sensible speaker market at different value factors. But it is left a void on the prime, one which the Sonos Play:1 and Google Home Max have crammed.

The Echo line of Alexa-powered audio system are frequent finest sellers, particularly throughout main gross sales seasons, just like the upcoming Amazon Prime Day 2019.

High-end audio…and a home robot?

The greater Echo is being developed by Amazon’s {hardware} R&D division Lab126, which had beforehand reported to be engaged on an Alexa-controlled home robot referred to as Vesta. Today’s information affirms that work continues on the home ‘bot, which was anticipated to be at the very least launched this 12 months, however is reportedly not prepared for mass-production.

Just what Vesta can do remains to be a thriller, however right now’s Bloomberg report sheds extra mild on the product: prototypes are round waist-height and get round due to computer-vision cameras. That sounds just like the sort of computer-assisted navigation that Amazon has left to Google’s Waymo and Apple’s self-driving automotive experiments, which is intriguing territory for a firm that made its bones on {hardware} fundamentals.

Details are nonetheless scarce about each initiatives, and neither are seemingly far sufficient alongside to have launch dates.