The Information has revealed in a recent report that tech giant Apple is building a Siri-powered speaker for the home, to challenge the Amazon Echo.

The reported development of a Siri-powered speaker at Apple marks a noteworthy move by the company, especially against the backdrop of the fact that cloud services and artificial intelligence-powered devices are becoming increasingly entwined with the smart home market.

According to the report, the Siri speaker underscores a long-term project at Apple, and has been in development for a long time now. In fact, Apple reportedly started building the speaker much before the Amazon Echo -- and the Amazon Alexa voice assistant -- hit the markets.

The report has also revealed that one of the notable features of the Siri-powered speaker includes the capability to turn on and off smart home appliances which are supported by Apple's HomeKit platform. In addition, the speaker will also be able to perform several tasks which are now associated with automated bots.

The Siri-powered speaker is essentially a simple piece of equipment with a speaker, as well as a microphone and Internet connectivity. The device’s Siri integration would pave the way for access to Internet queries and first-party iCloud services including Calendar, iMessage, Mail, and Contacts, among others.