Amazon India announced on Wednesday about that Alexa as well as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus smart speakers to India. The Amazon looks to extend its lead over Google Assistant-powered Google Home, and Apple’s Siri-powered HomePod in the smart speakers market. The company also said it will soon be bringing Amazon Prime Music, its music streaming service in the country. According to the Amazon, India is the fourth market after the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany where Amazon has officially made Alexa smart speakers Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus available.
Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus Features
The hockey puck-shaped Amazon Echo Dot, priced at Rs. 4,499, is the most affordable Echo smart speaker from the company. Once you have set it up, you could ask the Echo Dot to play music, read your news, share reminders, and wake you up in the morning. The new Amazon Echo, which offers louder and improved sound quality, is priced at Rs. 9,999. The Echo Plus, offers even better speakers than the Amazon Echo, and also lets users control other connected things in their house. It is priced at Rs. 14,999.
All the speakers Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus need to be tethered to a power source at all times. The company says it will begin accepting the orders for the Echo speakers on an invite-only basis for now. Customers who are interested can request an invite from the website. Amazon India will begin shipping the Echo speakers in the country starting the week of October 30.
Amazon Echo
- Echo connects to Alexa-a cloud-based voice service-to play music, set alarms and timers, provide information, check your calendar, weather, and sports scores, manage to-do and shopping lists, control smart home devices, and more-instantly.
- Just ask for a song, artist, or genre and it can play music from your favourite services like Amazon Prime Music, Saavn, TuneIn, and more.
- Powerful speakers that fill the room with immersive, 360° omnidirectional audio, and deliver crisp vocals and dynamic bass response.
- With seven microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo hears you from any direction- even in noisy environments or while playing music.
- Just ask Alexa to control lights, switches, and more with compatible connected devices from Philips, Syska and others.
- Alexa is always getting smarter and adding new features and skills. Just ask Alexa to order food from Zomato, request a ride from Ola, book a carpenter from Urbanclap, and more.
Echo Dot
- Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa voice service to play music, set alarms and timers, check your calendar, weather and sports scores, manage to-do and shopping lists, control smart home devices, and more-instantly
- Connects to speakers or headphones through Bluetooth or 3.5 mm stereo cable to play music from services like Amazon Prime Music, Saavn and TuneIn
- Includes a built-in speaker so it can work on its own as a smart alarm clock in the bedroom, an assistant in the kitchen, or anywhere you might want a voice-controlled computer
- With seven microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo Dot hears you from any direction-even in noisy environments or while playing music
- Controls lights, switches, and more with compatible connected devices from Philips, Syska and others
- Alexa is always getting smarter and adding new features and skills. Just ask Alexa to order food from Zomato, request a ride from Ola, book a carpenter from Urbanclap, and more.
Echo Plus
- Echo Plus connects to Alexa-a cloud-based voice service-to play music, set alarms and timers, provide information, check your calendar, weather, sports scores, manage to-do and shopping lists, control smart home devices, and more – instantly
- Alexa can control your compatible smart lights, plugs and more. Directly set up devices from Philips Hue, Syska, and others without the need for a separate smart hub. Just ask Alexa to discover your connected devices
- Just ask for a song, artist, or genre and it can play music from services like Amazon Prime Music, Saavn and TuneIn
- Powerful speakers that fill the room with immersive, 360° omnidirectional audio, and deliver crisp vocals and dynamic bass response
- With seven microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo hears you from any direction- even in noisy environments or while playing music
- Alexa is always getting smarter and adding new features and skills. Just ask Alexa to order food from Zomato, request a ride from Ola, book a carpenter from Urbanclap, and more.
To spice things a little, Amazon says “eligible customers” will be able to avail an introductory offer which would waive 30 percent from the sticker price of the Echo smart speakers, and will also throw in a year-long membership of Amazon Prime. Amazon India said on Tuesday that it would soon end the introductory offer on Amazon Prime annual subscription, which it launched in the country last year, and will be charging customers Rs. 999 instead of Rs. 499. Amazon also said post the invite-only period, it will be making Echo smart speakers available from Croma, Reliance Digital stores and other offline retail chains. For now, there is no mention of the Echo Show and Echo Spot speakers. It was not immediately clear whether the Echo smart speakers would support voice calling in India.
The company said it will soon be launching Prime Music streaming service in India. A “preview” of Prime Music will be initially available to invite-only Echo customers at no additional cost. The company says it has added Indian music to its catalogue. Prime Music will be exclusively available at no charge to Prime members at a later stage.
Amazon says Alexa has been customised for the Indian market. It supports an all-English voice with local pronunciations and intonations. It also understands local names, music titles, and places in non-English languages. The company said Indian developers have been working on to provide skills, a string of codes that allow developers to add personalised features and capabilities. More than 10,000 skills will be available to customers in India. Some key skills that users will be able to access are music streaming from Saavn, cricket updates from ESPNcricinfo, taxi service from Ola and Uber, food delivery from Zomato and Freshmenu, and news from outlets like NDTV, and Reuters among others.
On the sidelines, Amazon said it is also expanding its Alexa Skills Kit and the Alexa Voice Service in India. “Tens of millions of customers are already using Alexa, and today we’re excited to bring her to India with an all-new experience designed from the ground up for our customers in India,” Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices and Services said in a press statement.
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