Apple employees are reportedly testing a smart Siri speaker at home

Apple's rumored smart Siri speaker has progressed to the point in development where employees have been testing it at their homes for months, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Apple is rumored to be preparing to launch a smart speaker soon, possibly at the company's annual conference in June.

Apple often has its employees test unreleased products at home, usually when the devices are nearly finished and being prepared and bug-tested ahead of a launch.

The Siri speaker would connect to the internet and users could talk to it through Apple's voice assistant, Siri. It would compete directly with Amazon's Echo speakers, although Apple hasn't publicly commented on the device nor suggested how it could be marketed.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo discussed the speaker in a recent research note:

We expect Apple's first home AI product will have excellent acoustics performance (one woofer + seven tweeters) and computing power (similar to iPhone 6/ 6S AP). Therefore the product is likely to be positioned for: (i) the high-end market; (ii) better entertainment experience; and (iii) higher price than Amazon Echo.

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