Amazon is all set to start shipping of its Echo speakers in India this week. So, it has also made several improvements to its Alexa virtual assistant specifically for India.
Alexa can now use a blend of Hindi and English. It can speaker in an Indian accent, knows about Indian festival and refers to the living room as ‘drawing room’.
It knows Indian things can you ask it to add jeera, haldi and atta to your shopping list and it knows that you want to add cumin, turmeric and flour. So, You will feel like having an assistant with the Indian feel.
“We wanted our devices to talk, walk and feel Indian,” Parag Gupta, head of product management for Amazon Devices in India is quoted as saying. “Alexa is not a visiting American, she has a very Indian personality,” he added.
For attracting early customers in India, Amazon has also done lots of work. It has worked with several third-party developers to build the extension for Alexa. This count is over 1000 to offer you relevant answers for lots of things.
Alexa powered Amazon Eco, Amazon Echo Plus and Amazon Echo Dot are priced at Rs. 9999, Rs. 14999 and Rs. 4499 respectively. But Amazon is giving 30% discount as a promotional offer. So, you can get these devices for Rs. 6999, Rs. 104999 and Rs. 3149. You can buy these here.
Not just Amazon, Google, and Apple are also working on the similar thing for their Google Assistant and Siri. Google’s Assistant also understands Hinglish but Apple’s Siri has not yet come with this kind of language option.
I am not sure if people in India are ready for Voice assistant, but it is a big market to target. Are you interested in buying Amazon Echo device to use Alexa voice assistant? Let us know this in comments.
