Harman Kardon makes an Alexa killer! - Yanko Design

So this happened. Merely how Amazon of a sudden debuted the Repeat speaker with the Alexa AI banana within it and completely changed the smart-home game overnight (single-handedly cementing Alexa's place in the AI Banana battle between Google, Apple tree, and Windows)… this happened recently. Harman Kardon (a company recently acquired by Samsung) debuted its Invoke speaker, a large sound-pillar with Cortana, The Windows AI Assistant built in. We're very eager to see how this will stand up to the Amazon Echo, simply since Harman Kardon take been absolute champions of audio for decades, and Cortana has been a alone-underdog with no one really using Windows phones.

On the design front end, the Invoke is a lot similar the Repeat, with its matte metal vertical cylinder design crowned with the LED light ring on peak. However, it completely destroys its opponent when information technology comes to audio, considering no one really makes speakers quite like Harman Kardon! Dissimilar Echo's unmarried driver construction, the Invoke has 3 woofers and iii tweeters, giving it a solid edge over the competition. Nosotros're nevertheless really eager to see what the AI will be like and will it match up to Alexa (who's known to be partial towards Amazon's own products and services).

It also goes to evidence that Harman Kardon plays its cards well, choosing Cortana rather than its own parent company Samsung's vocalisation assistant Bixby. In all honesty, information technology has barely been weeks since Bixby'due south launch, so nosotros actually can't expect it to friction match up to Microsoft'due south phonation banana that has been in development since 2009.

Designer: Harman Kardon