The Cupertino, Calif., company announced Monday at its annual World Wide Developers Conference in San Jose the HomePod, a home speaker with Apple’s digital assistant Siri built into it. Starting at $349, the device, which ships in December, is nearly double the cost of the Amazon Echo ($179.99) and more than three times the price of the Google Home ($109). Amazon also has the Echo Dot, a budget version of the Echo that starts at $49.99. Until today, that left Apple as the one of the few major tech companies without a digital assistant/home speaker offering. The HomePod is Apple’s first new line of products since the Apple Watch in 2015.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 05, 2017 14:19 UTC