Amazon Is Making a Rival to Apple’s AirPods as Its First Alexa Wearable
- Company plans wireless earbuds for second half of this year
- Move is attempt to take Alexa mobile after flopped Fire phone
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Amazon.com Inc. is trying a new way to take its Alexa digital assistant mobile: wireless earbuds that mirror Apple Inc.’s popular AirPods.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is readying earbuds with built-in Alexa access for as early as the second half of this year, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The headphones will look and act similar to AirPods, but people working on the product inside Amazon are striving for better audio quality, the people said. Like the AirPods, the Amazon earbuds are designed to sit inside users’ ears without clips around the ear.