Google's own Smart Display will reportedly fuel the Alexa war this year
Google is said to be planning to release a new smart speaker, and it might be looking to the Echo Show for inspiration. A new rumor claims that Google will release a smart speaker with a display at some point this year. If that turns out to be true, then that means Google would have a smart speaker to compete with almost every device in Amazon's Echo line up.
There is, of course, an outlier in the Echo Look, but it's hard to imagine Google coming up with a competitor to that one. In any case, this rumor comes from Nikkei Asian Review, which spoke to unnamed sources who told it that Google will look to have this display-equipped smart speaker ready to go by the ever-important holiday shopping season.
READ MORE: Lenovo Smart Display Review
Those who have following the development of the Google Assistant platform probably won't be surprised to hear this rumor. A few companies have already announced Google Assistant smart speakers with displays, with Lenovo's Smart Display being the first out of the gate. It makes sense that Google would decide to release a speaker of its own that's equipped with a display, considering that it created a platform that other manufacturers are using to do just that.
Google has pretty lofty aspirations for this new smart speaker, with an industry source telling Nikkei that the company is targeting 3 million shipments for its initial release. Whether or not consumers will actually buy that many is another question entirely, especially when we can probably expect this speaker to cost a fair amount of money.
As always, take what you hear coming from the rumor mill with a grain of salt, but this report certainly makes some degree of sense. If Google wants to have this new smart speaker out the door in time for the holidays, it probably won't be much longer before it's officially confirmed – perhaps we'll see it revealed alongside the rumored Pixel 3? Time will tell, so stay tuned.