Industry reports suggest that Amazon is planning to launch glasses featuring Alexa, the company’s voice assistant. The glasses will connect to Alexa through a bone-conduction audio system that will transmit sounds into the user’s head.
A recent report by the Financial Times suggests that these smartglasses are unlikely to feature a camera in any form, bypassing the privacy concerns that have affected previous attempts at bringing smartglasses to the market.
The report says that the glasses could be revealed at a product launch event expected to be held shortly alongside a new home security camera, designed to tie in with the company’s Echo Show video screen and suggests that Amazon is looking to exploit its strong position in the voice activated market, where the Amazon Echo now has a 76% share of the smart speaker market in the US, having sold over 15m units. Google Home comes a distant second, with the remaining 24% of the market.
Last year Amazon began expanding the range, releasing the smaller Echo Dot, the Echo Look camera and the Echo Show with a screen.
