Ivee launches preorders for its cheaper Amazon Echo competitor

Voice interaction platform ivee has begun an Indiegogo campaign for those interested in purchasing its smart voice assistant, throwing its hat into the ring to do battle against the likes of Amazon Echo, Google Now, Siri, Cortana, and the like. The company is looking to raise at least $50,000 over the next 46 days.

With a retail value of $99, ivee Voice is a product that’s supposed to let you control various aspects of your home thanks to its extensive integrations. Besides telling you what the weather is, the company says it’ll let you request an Uber, play music via Spotify, alert fast-response services, and even potentially have groceries delivered. Ivee also claims that its framework enables seamless interactions with the likes of Hue, Nest, WeMo, Harmony, SmartThings, Wink, and others.

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The device is just 5 inches tall and weighs just over a pound. It utilizes a high-end ARM-based processor and uses Wi-Fi B/G/N. It’s also supposed to listen for commands as far away as 15 feet thanks to its 360-degree omnidirectional far-field microphones.

Started in 2011, ivee has made it a point to develop new products that leverage the power of the voice. The 500 Startups-backed company has previously produced an alarm clock that was billed as being the connected hub for your smart home (we’ve heard this before). Now ivee Voice looks to be a new product wholly centered on listening to your wants and needs and helping you around the house.

The entry of ivee Voice also comes as more voice-powered assistants have emerged in the marketplace, notably Amazon Echo. In comparison, ivee’s device is cheaper than Amazon’s ($99 versus $179.99). Both have 360-degree omnidirectional sound and are compatible with many different smart home services.

Ivee Voice can be controlled by a iOS or Android application, which will enable you to not only configure it to your heart’s content, but also create custom “scenes”, basically setting the mood in a room for whatever you want, such as movie time or … other things.

All orders are scheduled to be shipped in June 2016.

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Disclosure: Ivee was a part of the Orange Fab accelerator program, which I was a part of as a mentor. Also, I used to work for Orange.