• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, April 5, 2019

The wireless earbuds market could become a bit more interesting.

Following Apple’s lead with its popular AirPods, Amazon is looking for a piece of Apple’s action.

The mega online retailer is prepping earbuds with Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa built in, according to a report in Bloomberg.

The headphones reportedly would be similar to Apple’s AirPods but with better sound quality and, knowing Amazon, at a lower price. On the “better quality” part, the assumption is that Apple makes no product improvements over time, and, knowing Apple, that’s not likely.

The idea is that the earbuds would allow people to use voice to order things, presumably from Amazon, as well as check the weather and listen to music.

The initial expectation of Amazon’s Echo line of speakers was that they would primarily be used to order things, which isn’t the case. Voice ordering has yet to take off in any big way for any smart speaker devices.   

The big catch here is that since Amazon doesn’t have its own phone, it will have to get its Alexa earbuds paired with phones from Apple and a plethora of Android phone makers, putting Amazon up against Apple and Google in a potential battle of the heavyweights.

Meanwhile, consumers buying wireless earbuds will expect them to work with whatever phone they have as well as any phone the plan to get in the future.