Amazon.com and Qualcomm put the Alexa assistant in several headphones

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Qualcomm Inc. (Microchip)QCOM.O) joins Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) to broadcast Amazon's voice assistant Alexa in wireless headsets, announced Monday the two companies.

As part of this agreement, Qualcomm will launch a set of chips that any Bluetooth headset manufacturer can use to integrate Alexa directly into the device. When headphones are paired with a phone with the Alexa app, users will be able to speak to the voice assistant by pressing a button on the headset.

The functionality would be similar to that of Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) The AirPod wireless headsets, which allow users to operate their devices to talk to Apple's virtual assistant, Siri.

Amazon and Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google, whose voice assistants have been most often installed in their respective smart speakers, are eager to partner with helmet manufacturers.

Bose Corp and Jabra models integrate Alexa and Sony Corp.6758.T) said earlier this year that a software update would make some of his headset models work with Alexa. The Google Assistant can be used with Bose, JBL and Sony headphones, as well as Google Pixel Buds.

The Qualcomm partnership could expand this range. Qualcomm has developed a preconfigured circuit that helmet manufacturers can insert into their device in order to impregnate it with Alexa.

"This drastically reduces their [engineering] costs and time to market, "said Anthony Murray, Executive Vice President and General Manager Voice and Music of Qualcomm. "It's easy for the industry to adopt."

Murray declined to say whether Qualcomm would make a similar offer for Google Assistant, but said the chip company was considering supporting other partners in the future.

This initiative is part of Qualcomm 's broader desire to move away from its reliance on processors and modem chips for mobile phones. This activity has proven lucrative for Qualcomm, but its patent licensing model has resulted in regulatory fines and lawsuits from customers such as Apple Inc. (AAPL.O).

At a conference in Hong Kong scheduled for Tuesday morning local time, Qualcomm also said to work with the manufacturer of GoPro Inc action cameras (GPRO.O) to put more Qualcomm chips for image processing in devices. The company said it expects revenue of about $ 5 billion from non-mobile sources this year, more than 20 percent of the $ 22.4 billion in sales expected by analysts.