Along with the announcement that Amazon has committed to hiring 200 new people at its Toronto office, the tech giant has revealed that it plans to open a new Ottawa facility dedicated to the “development of projects for Amazon Alexa.”
The company also says that employees at its Toronto office will contribute to “the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant Alexa,” as well as other platforms like Amazon Web Services.
Amazon’s Echo voice-activated assistant launched back in September of 2014 but the company still hasn’t officially released the device in Canada, though it does work north of the U.S. border.
The opening of a dedicated Ottawa office focused on Alexa development, however, could indicate that a Canadian launch for the device is imminent, especially given the Seattle-based company recently launched two new versions, the Echo Show and the Echo Look, in the United States.
Google is also bringing is own voice-activated assistant, Google Home, to Canada on June 26th, which could prompt competition from Amazon.
This article was originally published on MobileSyrup