Intel and Amazon Collaborate on Alexa Device Reference Design

At last week’s Re:Invent conference held by Amazon Web Services, Intel announced it had two initiatives underway with Amazon related to the Alexa voice service. Intel’s newsroom reported that the first is integration of Alexa into and “Intel-based Smart Home Hub. The second is an Intel-based smart speaker reference design with Amazon Alexa. It is intended to help hardware manufacturers accelerate their development of voice-enabled devices with the Intel platform and Alexa Voice Services. The reference design will be available to developers and manufacturers in the first quarter of 2017.”

Amazon has aggressively courted device manufacturers and encouraged them to use Alexa as the voice interface and AI brains behind their hardware. The collaboration with Intel looks like an extension of that strategy. The reference designs should make it easier for new devices to incorporate Alexa. This reinforces the position that device revenue is not a core Amazon goal when it comes to Alexa. Proliferation of the software is most important to the company.

Other examples of third-party Alexa-enabled devices were reported in several earlier Voicebot articles.

Engadget – The CoWatch Brings Amazon’s Alexa to Your Wrist Starting Today

The Verge – Orion Labs Announces Alexa Integration for Onyx Device

The Verge – LG’s Amazon Echo Lookalike Now Has Built-In Alexa