As exclusively reported[1] by Gadgets 360, Amazon's range of Alexa-powered Echo devices are now available via offline retailers as well. What’s more, as we expected, even online purchases via Amazon.in are now open to everyone, removing the invitation system. When the devices launched on Amazon India they were available at a 30 percent discount and also came bundled with an Amazon Prime membership (worth Rs. 999) - both these perks will sadly no longer apply. This means the devices will now be available at Rs. 4,499 for the Echo Dot[2], Rs. 9,999 for the bigger Echo[3], and Rs. 14,999 for the Echo Plus[4].
All the speakers are powered by Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa[5], and at the company's Bengaluru office, its executives revealed that the Echo line in India is getting a broad rollout of new functions as well. These aren't new in that they've already been made available in other parts of the world, but as a part of the company's localisation efforts, not all features were made available at launch.
The new features that Amazon's executives demonstrated for Gadgets 360 were multi-room music, communications, and routines. "One feedback we got from a lot of customers was that 'we have multiple Echos, how can we use them in sync," said Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager - India, Alexa Experience and Devices. "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.”
To be clear, multi-room playback has already been available to several users in India, and the move represents a broad rollout of the feature.
Communications on the...