Apple Inc. said Wednesday that it is going to sell for the first time its HomePod wireless speaker to Chinese customers in early 2019, less than one year after the smart device was launched in the United States and Canada.

　　苹果公司周三表示，将于2019年初首次向中国客户销售其HomePod无线扬声器，这距离这款智能设备在美国和加拿大市场推出还不到一年。

　　The announcement appeared in a banner added to Apple’s Chinese language website on Wednesday, with a web page carrying detailed information and technological features of one of Apple’s major smart household products.

　　这一声明出现在周三苹果中文网站的横幅上，网页上载有苹果主要智能家居产品之一的详细信息和技术特征。

　　With the scheduled introduction of Homepod to China, Apple will become the first major U.S. smart speaker maker to tap into the world’s largest Internet market, beating its homeland rivals, Amazon’s Echo and Google Home.

　　随着Homepod计划在中国推出，苹果将成为首家进军中国这个全球最大互联网市场的美国大型智能扬声器制造商，击败其本土竞争对手亚马逊Echo和谷歌Home。

　　HomePod is what Apple calls a breakthrough Internet-based speaker that relies on voice interaction to play music from Apple Music, perform tasks and do other daily jobs such as sending text messages to friends or making outgoing phone calls.

　　HomePod是一款突破性的基于互联网的扬声器，它依靠语音交互播放苹果音乐、执行任务以及做其他日常工作，比如给朋友发短信或打电话。

　　HomePod was originally launched in the United States, Britain and Australia in February 2018. Starting in June, customers could purchase HomePod in France, Germany and Canada, before the smart wireless speaker was made available in Mexico and Spain in late October.

　　HomePod最初于2018年2月在美国、英国和澳大利亚推出。从6月开始，消费者可以在法国、德国和加拿大购买HomePod，然后在墨西哥和西班牙于10月底推出这款智能无线扬声器。

　　Market observers believed Apple’s HomePod will encounter strong competition on the Chinese market from homegrown smart speaker makers such as Tingting made by China’s tech giant Tencent, which integrates with the popular Chinese chatting app Wechat.

　　市场观察人士认为，苹果的HomePod将在中国市场遭遇本土智能扬声器制造商的激烈竞争，比如中国科技巨头腾讯生产的听听。听听与流行的中文聊天应用微信集成在一起。

　　Other Chinese competitors include major Chinese tech and Internet leaders, which have rolled out their own digital assistant products, ranging from Alibaba’s Tmall Genie, Baidu’s Xiaodu series to Xiaomi’s Mi Bluetooth speaker.

　　其他中国竞争对手包括中国主要的科技和互联网领军企业，它们已经推出了自己的数字助理产品，从阿里巴巴的天猫精灵、百度的小度系列，到小米的蓝牙扬声器。