Qualcomm is set to slash engineering costs associated with bringing voice assistant functionality to Bluetooth headphones through a partnership with Amazon. In doing so, Alexa can dip into a smartphone market which has long eluded Jeff Bezos – thereby inflating its already gluttonous share of the voice assistant market. Amazon has essentially fashioned a way to sneak Alexa in through the backdoor of the Android ecosystem, spelling trouble for Google which has itself been partnering with headphone manufacturers to broaden appeal and uptake of voice services using Google Assistant. The Qualcomm Smart Headset Development Kit is the first reference design on the market developed with support for the Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit, enabling any headphone maker to embed Alexa in…