Facebook Speakers

Facebook is set to officially foray into the global smart speaker
market in mid-2018 by launching two new models, codenamed
Aloha and Fiona - both with 15-inch touchscreens - in July at
the latest, with the devices positioned as a way to allow family
and friends to stay in touch with video chat and various social
features, according to industry sources.

The sources said that the Facebook move is expected to further
heat up the global smart speaker market, which has been
crowded with heavyweight players, including top supplier Amazon
and other tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and many
China players including Alibaba. According to estimates by
market researcher Canalys, the global market sales of smart
speakers are likely to double to over 50 million units in 2018 from
2017.

Supply chain sources said that Facebook was originally slated to
release the devices in May, but has decided to reschedule the l
aunch to allow more time for perfecting the acoustic quality of the
gadgets and software modification.

Pegatron as sole contract assembler

The two models will be fitted with 15-inch in-cell touchscreen panels reportedly to be sourced from LG Display, while Taiwan's Pegatron is also reported to be the sole contract assembler of the devices. But both firms declined to comment on matters concerning clients.