Amazon is Working on Wireless Earbuds With Alexa to Rival AirPods [Report]

Amazon is working on a pair of wireless earbuds with Alexa to rival Apple's AirPods, reports Bloomberg.

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.

Sources say the new earbuds are one of the most important projects at Amazon's Lab126 hardware division. Since they don't have cellular connectivity, they'll require pairing with a smartphone running iOS and Android. This means that Amazon will need to work with Apple and Google which could be difficult as both are competitors in the smart device market.


Amazon has faced some development delays but in recent months it's been seeking suppliers and manufacturing partners. The company has launched new devices around September for the past couple years.

Bloomberg reports that the earbuds have been tested in black and gray colors and will come in a storage case that is also a charger. The case can be plugged in to charge using a standard USB cable.

It's likely that Amazon will undercut Apple's price of $159 to $199 for its AirPods but a specific price target wasn't disclosed. Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, or RSS for updates.

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