Leaked images of Motorola smart speaker point to Chinese Google Home

• New images leaked online of a Motorola smart speaker, akin to a Google Home.
• It appears from the images that the speaker is geared towards the Chinese market.
• The promotional material doesn't mention any connection with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

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Last week, during the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, Samsung revealed the Samsung Galaxy Home: a smart speaker that incorporates the Bixby virtual assistant. Now, via Android Pure, it looks like Motorola is getting in on the smart speaker action as well.

While the smart speaker market is dominated mostly by Amazon (with Google coming in at a close second), that doesn't seem to be stopping other OEMs from releasing their own speakers.

Android Pure

The leaked images of the Motorola speaker are promotional photos and renders, which suggest the product will be called the Motorola AI Assistant. The images also suggest that the smart speaker will be a Chinese exclusive, at least at first. This is suggested by the predominance of Chinese companies in the promotional material, including Chinese search engine Baidu.

Android Pure

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It isn't clear from the images if the Motorola AI Assistant will feature Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or some other virtual assistant software. Motorola has a Moto Mod that turns a Moto smartphone into a smart speaker running Amazon Alexa, but that doesn't appear to be the case with the AI Assistant.

The design and overall aesthetic of the smart speaker are clearly lifted from the Google Home, with a light grey color scheme, grated fabric, and white plastic.

There doesn't appear to be any specifications in the material, other than showing the insides of the speaker to see its construction.

Android Pure

This is the first we've heard of Motorola making a smart speaker. That lack of information combined with the uncanny likeness to a Google Home makes it very likely that this is specifically for China and not meant to compete with either Google or Amazon directly. However, the smart speaker market is young and Motorola might bring this to other countries at some point in the future.

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