Chinese company Huawei Technologies Co, the world’s third largest smartphone vendor by unit shipment (according to IDC), is said to be working on its own voice assistant.
As stated by Bloomberg, the efforts of over 100 engineers at the Shenzhen offices in China are aimed squarely at Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, “not smaller players” a person familiar with the matter is reported to have said. There is, however, a slight difference, as this digital assistant would only communicate in Chinese languages and target the domestic market.
This strategic move is in light of the fact that many of Google’s services that come pre-installed on Android (the dominant smartphone OS) are actually blocked in the Asian country. The voice assistant would give Huawei a way to stand out from its competitors in the region.
Despite working on its homegrown assistant, Huawei will continue to work closely with Google and Amazon’s Alexa outside of China.
Source: Bloomberg