A new short video gives us a sneak peek into Microsoft's hardware plans to take on Amazon's Echo and Google's Home. The company is partnering with audio giant Harman Kardon to debut what appears to be a cylindrical speaker device equipped with Cortana in 2017. The teaser shows a disembodied voice using the "Hey Cortana" command to play music through the speaker, while the top of the device shows what looks like a circular display glowing with blue light.

In a Windows blog post, Microsoft says this is just one of the hardware solutions to come equipped with Cortana next year. Although the video is short, the device's uncanny resemblance to Amazon's Echo is hard to deny. Amazon recently updated the Echo to include better speakers, but Microsoft apparently decided to go with the audio experts at Harman Kardon to emphasize the music-playing ability of the device.

The Echo also has a blue ring of light at the top of its cylindrical body that glows when you speak to Alexa, and Microsoft appears to be going for the same kind of functionality, except with a display. Over the past week, Microsoft has detailed its plans to bring Cortana across a number of devices, including Internet of Things products, but having a screen is a requirement. Depending on when Harman Kardon's device debuts next year, Microsoft may beat Amazon to the punch by coming out with a screen- and voice assistant-equipped speaker; rumors states Amazon may be working on something similar.

Microsoft just launched the Cortana Devices SDK private preview, which OEMs can receive updates for if they want to make devices incorporating Microsoft's voice assistant. Smart devices made with Cortana will have "real-time, two-way audio communications with Skype, e-mail, calendar, and list integration," so it's safe to say that Harman Kardon's speaker will do much more than play music. Microsoft says that it's already working with a number of partners (and it interestingly highlights work with connected cars), but the first and only one we've seen anything about is this Harman Kardon-branded device.

There's no official release date for the Cortana-enabled Harman Kardon speaker, nor has any price information been released yet.

Listing image by YouTube, Windows