Qualcomm has created a pre-fabricated circuit that can be put into headphones by the manufacturers to make the devices connect with Alexa
Qualcomm, a global leader in next-generation mobile technologies, has entered into partnership with Amazon for spreading the use of Alexa voice assistant of Amazon in wireless headphones.
According to the agreement, Qualcomm will launch a series of chips that any Bluetooth headphones manufacturer can use for directly embedding Alexa into a device, the company said.
With Alexa app embedded, if a headphone is paired to a handset, it will enable the user to talk to the Alexa voice assistant by simply tapping a button on headphone. It would be similar to the functionality of Apple’s wireless earbuds, in which users are able to just tap the device in order to talk to Apple’s Siri virtual assistant.
Alphabet’s Google and Amazon, whose voice assistants often been found in their own smart speakers, are looking for partnership with headphone manufacturers. Some headphone models from Jabra and Bose are incorporated with Alexa. Earlier this year, Sony has announced that an update of software in some its headphone models will make them compatible with Alexa.
Partnership to expand reach
The partnership of Amazon with Qualcomm could augment this lineup. Qualcomm has created a pre-fabricated circuit that can be put into headphones by the manufacturers to make the devices connect with Alexa.
The is a part of Qualcomm’s broader objective to expand from its dependence on its core business of modem chips and processors for mobile phones. Though this business seems to be lucrative for the company, but due to its patent licensing model, the company may draw lawsuits and regulatory fines from its clients such as Apple.
Earlier, Qualcomm has said that it is associating with American action camera manufacturer GoPro to incorporate more Qualcomm chips in the devices for image processing. Qualcomm expects around $5 billion in revenue this year from non-mobile sources.
