may finally kick the tires on its first smart home assistant in June.
"There is an over 50 percent chance that Apple will announce its first home AI product at WWDC in June," KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note to investors obtained by MacRumors on Monday.
Kuo said Apple will begin selling the device during the second half of the year, when he expects Amazon to introduce new Echo products.
Besides , is the only other major player in this space. It sells the Google Home which offers similar functionality to the Amazon Echo in a compact speaker. It's unclear what Apple's device will look like, but it's likely to be powered by Siri.
WWDC is Apple's annual developer conference, and Apple would be wise to unveil the product in a room full of the folks who can help develop software for it. The Amazon Echo and Google Home both tie in to third-party applications, for example.
Kuo didn't explain what might hold Apple back from launch. It's possible Apple might want to save the device to unveil at the same time as its new iPhones in September.