Huawei To Feature Alexa In Smartphone Debut

CES 2017 continues to be a source for news in tech innovation — especially, it seems, if your company’s name starts with A. This time, an announcement from Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company Huawei means another new Alexa integration in the new year.

That’s right — Chinese original equipment manufacturer Huawei has announced it will pre-load Amazon’s Alexa artificial intelligence (AI) assistant into the U.S. model of its flagship smartphone, called Mate 9. Earlier versions of the Mate 9 smartphone have already been released in European and Asian markets. The phone ran Android, featured a 5.9-inch screen, a 4,000mAh battery and 64 GB of built-in storage — but no Alexa functionality.

It’s clear that Huawei is banking on Alexa’s stateside popularity to boost the phone’s presence in the U.S. Huawei’s Mate 9 breaks through to the U.S. market today, Jan. 6. Given that the Amazon Echo is still sold out from the holiday shopping season rush, it’s tough to imagine a scenario where built-in Alexa functionality won’t help bolster the phone’s popularity among U.S. consumers.

Especially since having Alexa in-hand means users can remotely control more devices than ever before. This week alone, Amazon has announced partnerships and Alexa integrations with DISH Network, Whirlpool, Samsung, Westinghouse, Element and Seiki.

Amazon also recently integrated Alexa’s functionality into Amazon Restaurants, the food delivery service side of Prime Now. Now, Prime members can voice-order their next meal through their Alexa-enabled devices.

Amazon sure seems to be doing its part to leverage its AI assistant’s power to make smart homes a reality in 2017. But the online retail giant is facing some stiff competition from the likes of Lenovo; Google, with its smart speaker and smart assistant Google Home; and Apple with its HomeKit. Right now, the only thing that 2017 could be, more than the year of the smart home, is the year the big names fought for smart home supremacy.