Suddenly, every major tech company is building an Apple AirPods competitor

·        
Amazon is also planning to enter the
market, according to a report.
·        
Samsung recently released the Galaxy
Buds, and Google is said to be working on a new version of its wireless
earbuds.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, sits in the Volkswagen Digital
Lab in Friedrichshain, Germany, for a joint press conference with the chairman
of the board of management of Volkswagen on Feb. 27, 2019.

Microsoft is building its own set of
in-ear headphones to compete with AirPods, according to Thurrott, a website that
follows Microsoft closely. The move adds to the growing list of major tech
companies seeking to capitalize on the massive popularity of AirPods.

The product is currently code named Morrison, according to the
site. Microsoft announced its Surface Headphones last
year, and they let consumers speak to its digital voice assistant, Cortana,
much the same way AirPods owners can speak to Siri. Thurrott speculated
that they are named for the late rocker Jim Morrison of the Doors
This would mark Microsoft’s second attempt at headphones and would
further position the company as a hardware player. In recent years, Microsoft
has bolstered its portfolio of products to align more against Apple’s, with its
Surface Laptop, Surface Pro and Surface Studio desktop.
Apple’s AirPods have exploded in popularity, and it appears that
other manufacturers want a piece of the market, especially among people who
might not own Apple products.
The Thurrott report follows another from Bloomberg earlier this
month, which said Amazon is planning to launch apair of buds that are similar to AirPods, and that they would
let people speak to its Alexa voice assistant. Samsung recently released its
take on the product with the Galaxy Buds.
Thurrott didn’t provide details on Morrison and whether or not
they’ll come with a charging case like AirPods.
Microsoft was not immediately available to comment.