Amazon's AI-powered Echo will make a Diwali debut in India
If things proceed according to the plan, Amazon will be launching its smart, wireless speaker Echo, which comes bundled with Alexa, an AI virtual assistant that's said to rival Apple's Siri, in India this Diwali. The online retailer previously had plans of launching it around December but has now quickened the process to make the best out of the festive season. Here's more about it.
Two variants for now
Amazon has already started testing two variants, Echo and Echo Dot, with a select number of its employees. However, if you've set your eyes on the other variants, such as its touch screen version, I am afraid you will have to wait. Hopefully, Echo would find enough buyers in the world's second largest Internet market to bring along the other variants to India too.
What can an Amazon Echo do?
Standard Amazon Echo, a virtual home assistant that works through Amazon's AI voice assistant Alexa, can help users perform a range of tasks, like, playing music, giving cooking tips, checking the weather, making to-do lists, ordering pizza, playing audiobooks, reading out books from Kindle etc.
The pocket pinch
Voice-assisted computing is supposed to be the next big leap in consumer technology. Then again, affordable pricing plays a considerable role in its acceptability. Echo and Echo Dot sell for $179 and $50, respectively, in the United States. Echo will carry a price tag of around Rs. 11,000-12000 and Echo Dot, around Rs. 5000- 6000, in India, said a source to FactorDaily.
Getting ready for the Indian way
There is, however, an underlying concern that Alexa may not be able to pick up Indian accent. Moreover, to become popular in India, it also needs to adapt regional languages into its portfolio. According to FactorDaily's source, Amazon's language scientists are working to provide Hindi and Tamil support to Alexa, besides English. With time, more languages, as updates, will get rolled out.
Let's see if it becomes popular here
Moreover, Alexa has also been picking up nifty skills to become more akin to the Indian needs. As the source says, "Earlier, it would give generic answers but it's starting to get more specific to location." Hopefully, now you would face no hiccups in getting Alexa to book you an Uber, guide you through a recipe or replying to your other queries.
