Amazon Echo speakers now available for all in India

Four months after launching Echo speakers in India on an invite-only basis, Amazon has made its line of Alexa-powered speakers available to everyone in the country.

Customers can now purchase the device from Amazon India website. The devices are also available in retail outlets including Croma, Reliance, Vijay Sales and Crossword.

The e-tailer through its Amazon India Echo twitter handle took to the microblogging site to make the announcement of the development.

Echo Devices Now Available to All Customers on https://t.co/coWK67RfEC
Click here to know more - https://t.co/UyB5b2Zxn3 pic.twitter.com/i3SmvXtHfE

— Amazon Echo India (@AmazonEchoIndia) February 15, 2018

Last year in October, Amazon had launched the product but only on invite-only basis, now the music lovers can get the product without any delay. India is the fourth country after the US, UK, and Germany, where echo smart speakers are available.

The Echo powered by its AI-enabled virtual assistant comes in three variants ­­­­­­-- Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot. Though, the prices of the devices have not changed.

The customers 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.

All these three voice-controlled speakers run on Alexa – a service in the cloud. The smart device offers a range of utilities like answers questions, plays music, reads the news, sets timer and alarm, checks the calendar, provides sports scores, controls lights at home, among many things.

Also Read: Amazon’s Echo all set to be heard this Diwali

Earlier, tech giant Apple had also announced its smart hi-fi speaker HomePod but is yet to announce its launch in India. The product was available for sale from February 9 only in the US, UK, and Australia.  Whereas Google Home and the Sonos One smart speakers have also gained much popularity.

Alibaba had also entered the growing field of voice-controlled speakers for the home with the launch of Tmall Genie X1 in China last year.  Facebook is also now planning to officially roll out two smart home speakers in 2018.

The global smart speakers market is likely to double to over 50 million units in 2018.

Digital speakers powered by virtual assistants are one of the hottest consumer product categories today. In the fourth quarter in FY 17, shipment of intelligent home speakers touched 4.2 million (almost 600% surge), where Amazon had 88 percent share and Google managed 10 percent.