The relatively new smart speaker market, which is currently being dominated by the Amazon Echo, is now welcoming a brand new contender in the form of Microsoft latest challenger, the Microsoft Harman Kardon Invoke. Microsoft's brand new offering is set to take on not just the Amazon Echo, but also Google's very own Google Home smart speaker.

According to Phone Arena, Microsoft's latest offering will be featuring their very own artificial intelligence (AI) technology in form of the virtual assistant Cortana. Cortana will be very similar to both Google Assistant and Alexa, but it will apparently be geared more towards the enterprise sector.

Each of the AI virtual assistants will have their own strong points. Alexa currently has the advantage when it comes to online shopping, thanks to its direct connection to Amazon. Google, on the other hand, has the entire Android system at its command, allowing it to perform different tasks such as control different devices within a user's home.

According to MSPowerUser, Cortana will still be able to do a lot of what its competitor can do, but with the exception of its direct usage of the Skype messaging app. Users of the new Microsoft Harman Kardon Invoke will be able to directly command the speaker to make direct or conference calls to other Skype users. The speaker can also play streaming music direct from iHeart Radio, Microsoft Groove, and other third party streaming music services.

Being a collaboration project with high fidelity audio company, Harman Kardon, the speaker itself will likely boast some top-notch sound quality. Having it feature the sound technology of the audio company will undoubtedly make it superior to its competitors in terms of its audio experience. Given that fact, the Harman Kardon Invoke will likely not be coming cheap and could cost more than both the Google Homes and Amazon Echo.