Skip to main content

[ TechLeaks ] Amazon Echo may launch in India this year including regional language support


http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/160517094422-amazon-echo-alexa-00003213-1024x576.jpg

Amazon is investing over $5 billion for its Indian unit to turn the website into the largest e-commerce portal in the subcontinent. The retailer rolled out its Prime subscription service in the country last year, and introduced Prime Video a few months ago. Now it looks like Amazon wants to bring its Echo lineup to India by the end of the year.

That's according to two anonymous sources speaking to Economic Times. This isn't the first time we're hearing about the Amazon Echo landing in India, but ET's report also states that Alexa — Amazon's voice-based assistant — will include support for regional languages: Marathi, Tamil and Hindi.

Amazon is said to initially offer Alexa in English, with support for local languages coming shortly afterwards. Alexa has turned into a robust platform over the last two years, with the assistant doing over 1,200 skills — everything from calling a cab, ordering items on Amazon, sending a text with your voice, and more.

There are a few India-specific problems when it comes to using Alexa for purchasing items on Amazon India — all online transactions in the country requires two-factor authentication — but it looks like Amazon is exploring workarounds:
"We will work around these barriers using passphrases and other India-specific innovations."
As for pricing, Amazon is likely to offer lucrative discounts initially to incentivize customers to pick up the Echo:
"We expect Amazon to launch (Alexa and Echo) in the Indian market with very attractive pricing offers in the beginning, a similar strategy used with Amazon Prime Video and something that worked well. These offerings are likely to be linked with existing users of Amazon's services in India, making it more appealing for them."
We excited to see what Echo brings to the table. Google Assistant is great at understanding queries, but Alexa is compatible with a broader range of services.

Would you be interested in buying the Amazon Echo once it launches in India? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[ Tech News ] Google Duo picture-in-picture mode

Duo's picture-in-picture mode is now available for everyone on Oreo. Oreo introduced picture-in-picture mode for phones and tablets, and Google is now flipping the switch for Duo. The feature is now available on all Oreo devices. You don't need to make any changes to enable picture-in-picture mode. As long as you're using a device running Oreo and have the latest update installed , you should be able to use the feature. With picture-in-picture mode, you get a miniature version of the picture window in one corner of the screen when you hit the home button in the middle of a call. You can move the position of the picture window to any corner of the screen, and the video orientation will change automatically based on whether the phone is in landscape or portrait mode. Available now on Android Oreo! https://t.co/lYr30syCRV — Justin Uberti (@juberti) October 5, 2017
Post a Comment
Read more >>

[ Tech News ] Google preparing customizable ‘Google Bar’

In teardown of version 7.12 of the Google app last week, we spotted several mentions of a customizable “Google Bar.” Since then, we have been able to activate the feature to reveal that future versions of the Google app that may allow users to customize the search bar widget. The latest Google app beta contains several strings referring to a “Google Bar” and the ability to alter its appearance: <string name=”google_bar”>Google Bar</string> <string name=”bar_color_title”>Bar color</string> <string name=”bar_logo_title”>Bar logo</string> <string name=”bar_shading_title”>Bar shading</string> <string name=”bar_shape_title”>Bar shape</string> Once rolled out, the new widget has an overflow icon at the very right that contains two menu items: “Customize” or “Send Feedback.” Tapping the former launches an editor where the bar’s appearance can be changed: Bar logo : Users can either select the full Google logo ...
Post a Comment
Read more >>

[ Tech News ] India now second-largest smartphone market in world

After the arrival of Jio, Indian smartphone market is on fire. India now became the second largest market for smartphones. India took over America, off course on top is China. Since, India is growing on it's fare share on the smartphone market, So I decided to list out the companies that are manufacturing in India. The list is below (Source :Wikipedia ) India CREO India Celkon India iball India Intex Technologies India Karbonn Mobiles India Lava International India LYF India Micromax Informatics India Onida Electronics India Spice Digital India Videocon India Xolo subsidiary of  Lava International India YU Televentures subsidiary of Micromax Informatics
Post a Comment
Read more >>