Amazon opens up Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit to wearable makers, and Qualcomm debuts a $299 Smart Headset, an Amazon-approved reference design for Alexa on the go
Amazon today announced general availability for its mobile accessory kit, a toolkit to help manufacturers quickly add Alexa to their devices.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is the payoff of a three-year build-out: after opening Alexa to outside hardware with the 2015 Alexa Voice Service developer preview, Amazon announced the Mobile Accessory Kit for wearables in January 2018 alongside a Premium Voice Development Kit for far-field reception. Today that kit reaches general availability, and Qualcomm — which previewed a headset reference design on its QCC5100 Bluetooth audio chip in October — is shipping a $299 Amazon-approved Smart Headset as the template manufacturers can copy.
The move extends a toolkit strategy Amazon has been running all year: September's Alexa Gadgets Toolkit gave third-party gadgets a way to plug into Echo devices, and general availability of the mobile kit does the same for untethered wearables, putting Alexa where no Echo speaker sits.
First-order effects
- Wearable and headphone makers can now ship Alexa-enabled products without building voice integration from scratch, using a generally available kit plus Qualcomm's certified $299 reference design as a shortcut to market.
Second-order effects
- Qualcomm gains an Amazon endorsement it can sell to every audio OEM evaluating its QCC5100 line, pressuring rival chip vendors to strike their own assistant partnerships to stay in consideration for voice-first headsets.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, voice assistants compete less on speakers than on being embedded by default in third-party accessories — making silicon partnerships and reference designs the real distribution channel for ambient voice platforms.
The trend: Voice assistants are expanding from first-party speakers into third-party wearables, with chipmakers' reference designs becoming the on-ramp that decides which assistant ships inside headphones.