The connected speaker market is becoming quite exciting these days with new offerings from Amazon, Google and Apple. Despite being late to the party, Microsoft will try to catch up by teaming up with partners such as HP and Harman Kardon. Earlier this year, the latter announced that its Invoke Cortana-powered speaker would be available in the US in Fall 2017, but the company didn’t share pricing details at the time.
As reported by Windows Central yesterday, Microsoft apparently revealed the average selling price of the connected speaker on its Xbox Live Rewards website. The Invoke was previously listed on the MyVIP Vault page, where members of the program can trade their MyVIP Gems for various products such as Xbox One S consoles, Windows Mixed Reality headsets and more. The speaker used to appear under the 5,000 Gems section, between the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller and the Logitech G633 headset. As you can see in the screenshot below, Microsoft indicated an approximate retail value of $150 for the Invoke.
Microsoft and Harman Kardon have yet to confirm this pricing, which is $50 more expensive than Amazon’s 2nd generation Echo speaker. It likely won’t be easy for the audio equipment manufacturer to compete with Amazon, which launched its first Echo device in the US back in 2015. Additionally, Microsoft announced last month that Alexa and Cortana will soon be integrated with each other, so it’s not clear if the Invoke and other Cortana-powered speakers will have any killer feature to stand out.
Are you willing to spend $150 for the Harman Kardon Invoke, or are you more interested in cheaper alternatives from Amazon or Google? Let us know below.
