On Twitter, Sams says the Invoke will be available from the third week of October. For those not filing through their calendar right now, that would mean anywhere between the 15th and 21st of the month. It is unclear whether that will be when Microsoft and Harmon Kardon open pre-orders or start shipping, but we would guess the former.
— Brad Sams (@bdsams) October 4, 2017 It is worth noting that both of those devices are about to ship their second generations. So, Microsoft is late to the party, but the market is still nascent enough that the company could make an impact. In its current form, the smart speaker has already been perfected. With that in mind, the Invoke does not really do anything the Echo or Home do not. It uses a virtual assistant (in this case Cortana) to automate tasks around a home. For example, users can connect smart home devices to the speaker and control them with voice commands. Really, the initial stage of the smart speaker market is about which voice assistant you prefer. Customers will soon be able to choose between Cortana, Alexa, and Google. As for the price of the Evoke, it is believed to cost $150, which matches up to its main rivals.
Boosting Voice Assistant Appeal
Instead, Lu says the technology needed a dedicated device, like a smart speaker. “The phone, in my view, is going to be, for the foreseeable future, a finger-first, mobile-first device,” explains Lu. “You need an AI-first device to solidify an emerging base of ecosystems.”
