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By Tripp Mickle 

Apple Inc. on Monday revealed a premium voice-activated speaker called HomePod and announced a series of upgrades to its line of Mac computers and iPads as it looks to bolster its product lines amid rising competition from rivals like Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The hardware announcements were the first Apple had made at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference since 2014. Collectively, they signaled Apple remains intent on being more than just an iPhone company despite the fact that the device accounts for two-thirds of global sales, and drives so much investor interest that anticipation of a 10th anniversary device later this year has sent the company's stock to record levels.

The HomePod speaker garnered much of the attention of the 5,300 developers attending the event in San Jose, Calif. Apple also introduced a series of software updates, including payment-to-payment capabilities for Apple Pay and a platform for developers to design augmented-reality apps.

The speaker, which will cost $349 and be available in December, is the third new product category Apple has entered since Chief Executive Tim Cook assumed leadership of the company in 2011. The Apple Watch, which launched in 2015, has failed to drive the type of widespread consumer demand of the iPhone, and AirPods, the wireless headphones introduced in September, have been challenged by production issues.

Apple is a late entrant to the rapidly growing speaker category. Amazon.com Inc. pioneered the category with its Echo device in 2014 and has sold an estimated 11 million speakers. Alphabet Inc. followed with Google Home, a speaker introduced last year, and Microsoft's Cortana assistant will be featured in a speaker from Harman International Industries Inc.

About 36 million Americans will use a voice-enabled speaker at least once a month this year, more than twice as many as a year ago, according to eMarketer, a market-research firm. The virtual assistants that power those speakers are increasingly being added to everything from refrigerators to thermostats and will be available across more than 4 billion consumer devices by the end of 2017, according to IHS Markit.

Siri, Apple's virtual assistant, will serve as the operating system for Apple's speaker, playing requested songs and controlling home products like thermostats and lamps programmed to work with Apple devices. The company said communication with the HomePod and Siri will be encrypted to protect user privacy.

Apple said it is updating its iPad Pro with a 10.5-inch Retina display and a refresh rate the company said is twice as fast, making videos smoother and crisper. Smaller exterior borders around the screen make the display 20% larger than its predecessor.

Sales of iPads have fallen for three straight years, and the tablet category overall has slowed as consumers embrace detachable products like the Microsoft Surface, a tablet that comes with a keyboard. The iPad Pro has tried to address that with a smart keyboard sold separately, but it has been unable to return Apple's tablet to sales growth.

New software for the iPad will feature a dock at the bottom of the device, so that users can move in and out of apps more simply. It also has drag-and-drop capabilities so that users can transfer information from a website into an email with ease. The result is a system that has more of the functionality of a computer.

Apple Pay, meanwhile, is being updated with a new payment-to-payment system, allowing users to send money to friends and family within the iPhone messages system.

The company also said it is injecting more artificial intelligence into its Apple Watch, updating software to automatically surface information for users and revising its music feature to show playlists and album art.

Apple is adding Siri intelligence to the Watch. The service, which has been available on the iPhone for more than a year, will use machine learning to adapt automatically to a user's routines, serving up prompts for running apps for those who regularly run in the morning or afternoon.

"This is an intelligent active assistant right on your wrist," Apple's Vice President of Technology Kevin Lynch said.

Mr. Lynch said Apple is updating the music feature on the app, making playlists available and album art. To date, the music feature has been relatively bland, offering just the song name and an arrow to advance songs.

Fitness remains a key focus on the Apple Watch. The company said its software has been updated to offer high-intensity interval training. It also has worked with gym equipment manufacturers, so Apple Watch users can sync with machines they work out on in the future. Apple Watch will add coaching algorithms to tell users how much they need to walk to hit fitness goals at the end of the day.

Apple also said Monday that Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video will be added to its Apple TV devices later this year. The lack of Amazon's streaming service was seen as a hole in the Apple TV's lineup.

Additionally, Apple played up virtual reality with both its Mac hardware and software, announcing it is updating its line of iMac desktop computers with new chips from Intel Corp. that increase processing speeds and improve graphics.

Apple also said it is updating its entire line of MacBooks with Intel's seventh-generation processors known as Kaby Lake. The refreshed MacBook Air, MacBook and MacBook Pro began shipping on Monday.

It also said its new Mac High Sierra operating software offers new features for developers designing virtual reality games and experiences. During a demonstration, developers from Epic Games and Industrial Light and Magic demonstrated the way designers could shoot fire inside a virtual reality design of "Star Wars."

Apple also said it has updated Siri, making its voice sound more natural and giving it translation abilities across about five languages. Now users can say, "How do you say, 'What are the most popular dishes in your restaurant' in Chinese?" and Siri will reply in Mandarin for the user. Other languages include English to German, French and Spanish.

Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 05, 2017 15:50 ET (19:50 GMT)

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