Amazon lowered the price of its Echo voice-enabled speaker, which could signal that a new model is on the way.
It was a busy news day for the Amazon Echo.
For one, the popular voice-enabled speaker got a price cut, with Amazon lowering the price to $150 from $180.
You might want to hold off on that purchase a little longer, though. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon.com could come out with a new version — one that features a touch screen and lets users make video calls as soon as Tuesday. It could sell for upwards of $200.
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Amazon’s interest in expanding the Echo family makes sense. An eMarketer report, released Monday, said the Echo was far and away the most popular voice-controlled speaker. The number of Americans using home assistants in general is projected to more than double this year, and Amazon will have more than 70% of all users, the report said.
The company is clearly doubling down on the Echo’s popularity. Last month, it announced the Echo Look, an invite-only device with a built-in camera that judges your outfits. That, presumably, could prompt you to shop more on Amazon.
The rumored touch-screen Echo might also have these capabilities. Plus, it’s expected to support video chat, an area where Microsoft’s Skype and Apple’s FaceTime are the household names. Video chat isn’t exactly a lucrative business, though. While Skype brings in some money, FaceTime doesn’t even try to.
In any case, Amazon isn’t very preoccupied with making money off of its home assistant at least not yet. During the company’s earnings call last month, CFO Brian Olsavsky fielded a question related to monetizing the Echo and said that doing so was “not our primary issue right now.”
As it stands, Amazon may just be happy getting people to interact with its products at more points throughout the day. Once the company hooks them on the ecosystem, it can find ways to make money later. That’s something Apple knows well.
Date:May 08, 2017