Amazon India has dropped the invite system for its smart speaker Echo lineups as of today (15th Feb 2018) and will be available to all consumers in the country. The Echo smart speakers powered by “Alexa” Amazon’s virtual assistant were launched in India for invitees last November. Three months after its initial availability in India, these smart speakers will be sold at multi-brand retail outlets as well as Amazon.in.
The devices, when launched, had a 30 percent discount on Amazon India and also came bundled with an Amazon Prime membership worth Rs. 999 both these perks will sadly no longer be available. You will have to pay Rs. 4,499 for the Echo Dot, Rs. 9,999 for the bigger Echo, and Rs. 14,999 for the Echo Plus.
As reported by ETtech, Customers will now be able to purchase Echo devices from more than 350 retail outlets such as Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales and Crossword among others across 20 cities in India. It will also be available at the Amazon devices kiosk in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Tens of thousands of customers have adopted Echo devices in India. We get millions of utterances a week, which is among the highest in all the countries where Echo devices are currently available”, said Parag Gupta – Head of Product Management and Marketing, Amazon Devices.
Amazon is also now allowing customers purchase multiple devices, which was previously restricted to one device per customer during the invitation phase.
New Features
As of 15th Feb 2018, Amazon has also rolled out some new features/skills to the Echo series in India.
One of the most awaited feature (Personally by me at least) is the Voice Calling & Messaging. Amazon introduced voice calling and messaging capabilities to its voice assistant Alexa, enabling users with an Echo device or Alexa mobile app to call or message their contacts who also have either an Echo device or the Alexa mobile app. You still cannot call landlines and mobiles from your Echo like in the US, but the new feature will use the Echo as a speakerphone if you have multiple devices in the same house.
Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager – India, Alexa Experience & Devices told ETtech that the Alexa experience for India has received a major upgrade during this invite-only phase, with improved speech recognition, expanded local knowledge, new localized skills and better music selection.
One of the key focus areas has been the getting the right pronunciation of Indian words or names in a local accent. For instance, Alexa used to pronounce Lata Mangeshkar in a non-Indian accent when the first devices got shipped in India during the first week of November. However, three months down the lane, the device is now able to pronounce complex Indian names accurately in local accents.
“We are trying to make sure Alexa can even pronounce the words correctly because it needs to sound natural. We don’t want anything to sound robotic or mechanized.” Kumar said.
Another feature which has been rolled out today is “Multi-Room Music” which allows you to play and control music across devices at the same time with a simple ‘play everywhere’ command. So now you can listen to your music in any of your rooms, or you can have a setup where there are multiple Echo speakers in the same room for bigger sound. Multi-room playback has already been available to several users in India, and the move represents a broad roll-out of the feature.
Amazon is also aiming to improve the discovery of Alexa Skills, the voice apps developed by third-party developers to extend the functionality of Echo devices, among its customers. Amazon had recently made it possible to discover and add Alexa skills through Amazon.in website and mobile app. Currently, Alexa skills store has more than 12,000 skills that you can use.
If you have been waiting to get that Amazon invite for a long time. It’s good news as consumers can now get their hands on the Amazon Echo lineup without the need of an invite. You can buy from the link provided below.
Amazon Echo Dot Amazon Echo Amazon Echo Plus
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