Google Unveils $50 Home Mini Voice Speaker in Crowded Market

(Bloomberg) -- Google showed off its latest entrants in the smart speaker category: two new Home devices to better compete with Amazon.com Inc., Sonos Inc. and Apple Inc. in an increasingly crowded market.

The Google Home Mini is a circular-shaped device with no screen and is a fraction of the size of the original model. And at $50, it's also less than half the price. The Home Mini comes in three colors: coral, chalk, and charcoal. The speaker isn't as loud as the original, but it still comes with Google's digital assistant so you can use your voice to ask questions, make calls, schedule appointments, control smart home devices, and play music.

The new device is smack in the price category of Amazon's Echo Dot, and like Amazon, Alphabet Inc.'s Google likely imagines that users will buy multiple mini speakers and place them throughout their homes. It's available for pre-order as of Wednesday and will be in stores Oct. 19.

The Google Home Max is larger with better speakers, costs $399 and will be launched in the U.S. in December. That's more expensive than Apple's upcoming $349 HomePod speaker.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Gurman in San Francisco at mgurman1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Alistair Barr