Article: What if Apple's Amazon Echo competitor is the iPad?


Susie Ochs for Macworld:

Amazon's Echo, which sells for $180, can do more than just control smart-home devices. Its voice-activated assistant, Alexa, can also add items to your shopping list, play music, provide weather reports and news updates, and connect you with third-party services like Kayak, Fitbit, and Uber. Guess what--Siri on an iPad running iOS 10 will be able to do a lot of that too.

Good point. No need for a dedicated device when you've already got so many capable devices in the hands of customers. Plus, your iOS device is likely to be more often near you. Just shouting out commands to be heard by a listening device may be more appealing to a futuristic vision than actually practical.